N e o l i t h i c S
n a k e G o d d e s s
The identity between Athena and the snake was explicitly stated in ancient Greece. The historian Herodotus reports that in Athens they have a great snake which guards the Acropolis and to which each month offerings of honey cake are made, and graciously received. But at the time of the Persian invasion, the snake refused to eat the offering. 'And when the priestess announced this, the Athenians deserted the city the more readily because the Goddess herself had deserted the acropolis." About 4500 BCE Crete, Heraclion Museum (Click the image for a full screen view)
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