^* This paper was written for a volume of studies issued in honour of Nikolaos Platon; unfortunately it was not ready in time to be included there. I would like to thank warmly my friend, Professor Geraldine Gesell, for her kindness in correcting my English text.

¹ Davaras, , Amaltheia 1971, 200Google Scholar; ADelt 27B, 1972 (1977) 651 (preliminary reports).

² In this village, situated about 1 km NW of the Peak Sanctuary, N. Platon brought to light some years ago the fine Minoan villa of Zou: Platon, , PAE 1955, 289–293Google Scholar; 1956, 232–239.

³ Faure, P., BCH 91, 1967, 118 f. fig. 8, 167 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with a general description of the site. Cf. Rutkowski, B., Cult Places in the Aegean World, Warsaw 1972, 323Google Scholar; and The Cult Places of the Aegean (hereafter CPA), New Haven and London 1986, 98 no. 37. The site is sometimes referred to as ‘Galiou to Skopeli’ but this place-name, used also for Traostalos, is a modern one, connected to the altitude signs erected on the peaks of several Cretan mountains by the French army at the beginning of the 20th century. It is clear that the original place-name Prinias, ‘an oak-wooded place’ which is also the official one, should be preferred.

⁴ Cf. Davaras, , Hagios Nikolaos Museum, Athens 1982, figs. 29, 32, 34, 39, 40, 42, 44, 46.Google Scholar

⁵ About similar plastic eyes of beetle models from Petsophas (Myres, J., The Sanctuary-Site of Petsofa, BSA 9, 1902–1903, pl. XIII no. 63)Google Scholar cf. Platon, N., Τό ἱεϱόν ΜαΖἅ ϰαί τά μινωιϰά Ἱεϱά Κοϱυφἥς, Kr Chron. 5, 1951, 138.Google Scholar

⁶ Platon, op. cit. 137.

⁷ On some Prepalatial scarabs the elytra are conventionally incised with cross-hatching: CMS I 1 and 117; cf. Yule, P., Early Cretan Seals: A Study in Chronology, Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 4, 1981, 78.Google Scholar

⁸ Platon, op. cit. 136–139 pl. Z 1 nos 1, 5, 8–10.

⁹ Platon, op. cit. 136 and n. 37.

¹⁰ Cf. Rutkowski, CPA 246 n. 90.

¹¹ Which more or less imitates the natural colour of the insect, as Platon, op. cit. 137, remarks.

¹² Faure, , BCH, 91, 1967, 141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹³ Rutkowski, CPA 89 f. fig. 119 and n. 90–91 (with extensive entomological literature).

¹⁴ Petsophas: Myres, op. cit. pl. XIII nos 60–63; cf. Rutkowski, CPA 246 n. 90 about an unpublished beetle from this site in the British Museum; Piskokephalo (a sacred enclosure): Platon, op. cit. 136–139 pl. Z 1 nos 1, 5, 8–10; cf. Rutkowski, CPA 89 and n. 85–88; Platon, op. cit. 137, states that only 5 beetles were found, but Rutkowski, CPA 245 n. 79, writes about ‘more than 30 models of beetles’; Malia, Prophitis Elias: Etudes Crét. 9, pl. 45; Rutkowski, , CPA 88, 89Google Scholar and n. 89 fig. 115, 98 no 29a (‘sacred function probably but not certain’); Jouktas: Karetsou, Ergon 1978 fig. 73; Rutkowski, CPA 88 fig. 116. For beetles from settlements see Rutkowski, CPA 89 and n. 80 (with references).

¹⁵ From Prinias: Davaras, op. cit. fig. 32.

¹⁶ Again from Prinias, Davaras, op. cit. fig. 34.

¹⁷ Davaras, , Guide to Cretan Antiquities, New Jersey 1976, 97 fig. 55.Google Scholar

¹⁸ For a LH III clay rhyton in fish-shape from Minet el-Beida see Syria 13, 1932, pl. II 1; Bossert, Altsyrien ³ fig. 498. About the role of the fish in the iconography of the Great Goddess see Roes, A., Birds, and Fishes, , Jahrbericht Ex Oriente Lux 10, 1945–1948, 461–72.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Picard, Ch., Ephèse et Clans, Paris 1922, 60 et n. 2Google Scholar; cf. Davaras, , BCH 104, 1980, 69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Another opinion has been forwarded by Faure, P., BCH 93, 1969, 192CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who would see in the fish as well as in the ship-model from the same sanctuary ‘les ex-votos de marins à une divinité cosmique, leur protectrice particulière’; cf. also Faure, , La vie quotidienne en Crète au temps de Minos, Paris 1973, 174.Google Scholar

²⁰ Sackett, L.H. and Popham, M., Excavations at Palaikastro VII, BSA 65, 1970, 220, 239 no NP80 pl. 58 and fig. 12Google Scholar; ADelt 18B, 1963, pl. 368 c. Cf. Gesell, G., Town, Palace and House Cult in Minoan Crete (SIMA LXVII), Göteborg 1985, 31, 119Google Scholar (Cat. 99) pl. no; in general about rhyta: Gesell, op. cit. 33. Cf. Rutkowski, CPA 245 f.n.84.

²¹ In general cf. Gesell, op. cit. 119 (Cat. 99).

²² Another possible beetle figurine, but evidently not a rhyton, comes from Pseira: it is an insect stone figurine, which Levi, D., ASAtene 10–12, 1927–1929, 524 fig. 604Google Scholar, suggests represents a cicada; but Platon, op. cit. 139 and n. 102, thinks it is a horned beetle with its horn missing.

²³ Myres, op. cit. 377 p. XIII no 62: unfortunately the small picture is not clear and satisfactory.

²⁴ For the strong feet of this insect, similar to those of a mole and useful for digging up the earth, see Platon, op. cit. 137. The same idea occurred also to Dessenne, A., BCH 73, 1949, 309CrossRefGoogle Scholar, about the Malia figurine.

²⁵ Even Evans, , PM I, 240 fig. 180Google Scholar, who published a goblet from the Royal Pottery Stores, found along with egg-shell ware, with three models of horned beetles with T-shaped elytra set in the spaces between the three handles, saw in them ‘cockchafers’ – an insect of the genus Melontha – but failed to make a connection to the extant Petsophas examples. In fact, the first archaeologist, assisted by entomologists, who recognized in the Petsophas pieces the representation of a beetle and not of some animal, was Sp. Marinatos, according to the testimony of Platon, op. cit. 136.

²⁶ Platon, op. cit. 138 no δ pl. Z 1 no 5.

²⁷ See n. 25 above.

²⁸ For instance, about the indisputable religious significance of the Marine Style see recently P. Mountjoy, Ritual Associations for LM IB Marine Style Vases, in Darcque, P.–Poursat, J.-Cl., L'iconographie minoenne, Actes de la table ronde d'Athènes (1983), BCH Suppl. II, 1985, 231.Google Scholar Cf. also Schefold, K., Die Bedeutung der kret. Meerbilder, AntK 1, 1958, 3.Google Scholar

²⁹ Rutkowski, CPA 89 and n. 82.

³⁰ Faure, , BCH, 91, 1967, 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ Cf. Hutchinson, R.W., Prehistorie Crete, Harmondsworth 1962, 219Google Scholar: ‘presumably regarded as a field pest which the worshippers hoped to render innocuous’

³² Evans, , PM I, 153.Google Scholar Cf. Willens, R.F., Cretan Cults and Festivals, London 1962, 72 and n. 82Google Scholar, with further comparisons with the golden emerods and mice which were made as ‘trespass offerings’ by the Philistines. Cf. also Myres, op. cit. 381 f.

³³ Nevertheless Myres, op. cit. 382 and n. 3, discusses also the offering of a ‘bronze beetle (or is it a six-legged tortoise) from Olympia’; cf. Bronzen von Olympia XIII 213; Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings 299.

³⁴ Myres, op. cit. 377 pl. XIII no 60 (length 0.055 m.).

³⁵ Myres, op. cit. 377 and n. 3.

³⁶ Myres was obviously followed in this interpretation of the figurines as hares or hedgehogs by several scholars: cf. Evans, , PM 1, 153Google Scholar; Müller, V., Der Polos. Die griech. Götter krone, 1915, 12Google Scholar n. 5 no 7; Hutchinson, , BSA 40, 1939–1940, 43 pl. 20 bGoogle Scholar; Nilsson, , MMR ², 1950, 70.Google Scholar

³⁷ Platon, op. cit. 137, 157.

³⁸ Platon, op. cit. 137 and n. 99, who compares it with the very noxious pest known in Crete as περτσιϰουρας.

³⁹ Cf. Sackett and Popham, op. cit. 239.

⁴⁰ Cf. Killen, K.T., BSA 59, 1964, 1 ff.Google Scholar; but cf. also Young, D., Kadmos 4, 1965, III ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rutkowski, CPA 90 and n. 94.

⁴¹ Rutkowski, CPA 90 fig. 118 a–b, 246 end of n. 90 (with references and comparisons).

⁴² Recently cf. the excellent interpretation of L. Morgan, Theme in the West House Paintings at Thera, , AE 1983, 88–91.Google Scholar

⁴³ Rutkowski, CPA 228.

⁴⁴ Faure, , BCH, 93, 1969, 206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁵ Faure, op. cit. (Vie quotidienne) 304.

⁴⁶ Kenna, V., Cretan Seals, Oxford 1960, 9 and n. 7 (with other literature)Google Scholar; especially detailed see Bonnet, H., Reallexikon der ägypt. Religion, Berlin 1971, 720–722 (with other literature).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Erman, A. (Ranke, H.), Ägypten und ägypt. Leben im Altertum, Hildesheim 1977, 356.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Cf. Erman (Ranke), op. cit. 418.

⁴⁹ Cf. the interesting but unprovable opinion of Faure, , BCH 93, 1969, 192 n. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘Comme le scarabée égyptien il semble que se soit un symbole solaire de régénérescence et du résurrection’

⁵⁰ Cf. Hood, S., The Minoans, 1971, 108Google Scholar; Yule, op. cit. 78 ff. (scarabs and scaraboids).

⁵¹ Cf. especially Yule, op. cit. 78 f. Cf. also J.D.S. Pendlebury, Aegyptiaca, 1930, passim; Evans, op. cit. 199 f fig. 147–148; Rutkowski, CPA 246 n. 92 (with other references).

⁵² St. Alexiou, , Μινωιϰμός Πολιτισμός, Herakleion 1964, 71.Google Scholar

⁵³ Pelon, O., Mallia, Maisons III (Etudes erét. 16), Paris 1970, 40–53Google Scholar, 59–61, 67. Cf. van Effenterre, H., Le palais de Mallia et la cité minoenne II (Incun. gr. LXXVI), Rome 1980, 447Google Scholar; Gesell, op. cit. 30, 34 and n 115, 108 f. (Cat. 81); Rutkowski, CPA 151 No. 37.

⁵⁴ E.g. CMS II 1 118, 332 and 402; cf. Yule, op. cit. 78 f. Of course the same natural basic T-like pattern exists also on the examples with cross-hatched elytra we have seen above as well as in the examples with parallel striations. The opinion of the Polish entomologist Mroczkowski (cited by Rutkowski, CPA 89) that the models without ribbing simply represent larvae seems rather untenable.

⁵⁵ This plinth could have formed part of the bottom of a bowl like the contemporary one from Palaikastro containing a herd of miniature oxen: Bosanquet, , BSA 8, 1901–1902, 294Google Scholar; Evans, PM I 180 fig. 130 b; Marinatos-Hirmer, , Kreta, Thera und das myken. Hellas, München 1973, 112 fig. 18.Google Scholar As Evans, op. cit., remarks, ‘numerous Egyptian parallels are to be found for these bowls with animal figures’. ‘Of undoubtedly Egyptian origin are the scarabs and scaraboids in Minoan glyptic’ according to Walberg, G., Tradition and Innovation. Essays in Minoan Art, Mainz 1986, 54.Google Scholar Cf. S. Immerwahr, in L'iconographie minoenne, Actes de la table ronde d'Athènes, BCH Suppl. 11, 1984, 78–81.

⁵⁶ Cf. some examples from Piskokephalo: Platon, op. cit. 138 f. nos d and e pl. Z 1, nos 5 and 1.

⁵⁷ Cf. Erman, A., Die ägyptische Religion, Berlin 1909, 161 fig. 88 aGoogle Scholar; cf. Bonnet, op. cit. 721 fig. 41.

⁵⁸ Cf. Hood, op. cit. 108 fig. 86.

⁵⁹ Rutkowski, CPA 90 f. 228.

⁶⁰ Davaras, , Μινωιϰό ϰηϱιοφόϱο πλοιάϱιο τῆς Συλλογης Μητσστάϰη, AE 1984, 76 ff.Google Scholar