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Flying fish model

Υ74
Faience
Mended from nine fragments, restored on part of the body and fins.
Length: 8.85 cm. Width: 11.2 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Middle-Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Middle Minoan ΙΙΙΒ - Late Minoan ΙA period.:
1650 - 1550 BC:
Gallery:
VIII
Case:
82
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Minoan religion. Palace cult
The Temple Repositories of the palace of Knossos
Description
Faience flying fish model. The body is rendered with a curve indicating movement, while the head with its half-open mouth and eye in high relief is particularly expressive. This and a second flying fish were restored from fragments found in the crypts of the Temple Repositories. The crypts contained a great many faience objects forming the equipment of the Central Palace Sanctuary of Knossos: besides the famous Snake Goddesses, there were also plaques and models of subjects from the animal, floral and marine worlds. The last includes at least five fish models and a large number of painted models of seashells and rocks. The flying fish have flat backs, meaning that they were probably relief inlays on some object or hung on the walls of the shrine they may have adorned, while some seashells are three-dimensional models and probably not inlays. However they were used, the fish and shells attest to the vital part played by the world of the sea in Minoan religion.
Bibliography:
Evans, A.J. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Volume I. London, 1928, 521-522, fig. 379. Foster, K.P. Aegean Faience of the Bronze Age. New Haven, 1979. Panagiotaki, M. The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos. British School at Athens Supplementary Volume no. 31. London, 1999, 80, 104, 154, pl. 11a.
Author:
E. S.


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