{{Short description|Symbol used in the Minoan civilisation}} [[Image:Cnossos6.png|thumb|The reconstructed horns of consecration at Knossos]] '''Horns of Consecration''' is a term coined by Sir Arthur Evans<ref>E..g. in Evans, "Mycenaean tree- and pillar-cult and its Mediterranean relations", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''31''' (1901) pp 107, 135-38, "§15- The Horns of Consecration".</ref> for the symbol, common in Minoan civilization, that is usually thought to represent the horns of the sacred bull. Evans said they were "a more or less conventionalised article of ritual furniture derived from the actual horns of the sacrificial oxen".<ref>Evans 1901:137; horns of consecration are juxtaposed with bulls in many configurations on Late Minoan IIIA2 ''larnakes'' illustrated by L. Vance Watrous, "The Origin and Iconography of the Late Minoan Painted Larnax" ''Hesperia'' '''6'''.3 (July 1991), pp 285-307).</ref> thumb|Small clay horns on a model building
The porous limestone horns of consecration on the East Propyleia at Knossos (''illustration, right'') are restorations. Horns of consecration in stone or clay were placed on the roofs of buildings in Neopalatial Crete, or on tombs or shrines, probably as signs of sanctity of the structure.<ref>Geraldine C. Gesell, ''Town, Palace, and House Cult in Minoan Crete'' (SIMA, Göthenburg) 1985, p. 62.</ref> The symbol also appears on Minoan sealstones,<ref>An example is the seal illustrated by Evans, "The Palace of Knossos", ''BSA'' '''7''' (1900/01), fig. 9 and as fig. 1 in Karl Kerenyi, ''Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life'' (Princeton) 1976, and by Joseph Campbell, ''Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God'' (1964) 1970, fig. 12.</ref> often accompanied by the labrys (double axe) and bucranium (decorative bull skull sculpture), which are part of the iconography of Minoan bull sacrifice. Horns of consecration are among the cultic images painted on the Minoan coffins called ''larnakes'', sometimes in isolation; they may have flowers between the horns, or the labrys.<ref>Watrous 1991, ''passim''.</ref>
==Astronomy== A suggestion for a practical use for the large examples on the top of buildings, is that they were used as frames for sighting the movements of heavenly bodies, for example the constellation of Orion, which may have represented the "young god" of Minoan religion.<ref>MacGillivray, Alexander, and Hugh Sackett. “The Palaikastro Kouros: the Cretan God as a Young Man”, p. 168-166, Chapter 14 of ''The Palaikastro Kouros'', a Minoan Chryselephantine Statuette and its Aegean Bronze Age Context", British School at Athens Studies, vol. 6, 2000, pp. 165–169. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40916626 JSTOR]. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021</ref>
==Comparisons== Evans compared the Horns of Consecration with the four "horns of the altar" of Hebrew ritual,<ref>Their special sanctity is reflected in the practice of the sanctuary seeker clasping the horns of the altar (1 Kings i.50; ii.28ff, noted in this context by Richard Broxton Onians, ''The Origins of European Thought About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate'' 2nd. ed. (1988) p. 236 note 9.</ref> and with the altar with a horned cult object depicted on the stele from Teima in northern Arabia, now conserved at the Louvre.<ref>Evans 1901:137 fig. 20.</ref>
<gallery widths="190px" heights="190px"> File:Knossos Fresko Dreigliedriger Schrein 04.jpg|Miniature fresco fragment, Knossos File:Findings from shrines on Crete, Postpalatial period, AMH, 145264.jpg|From shrines on Crete, Postpalatial period, AMH File:Agia Triada, sarcophagus, long side 1, limestone, fresco, 1370-1320 BC, AMH, 145305.jpg|topping a tomb on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus File:Goddess with upraised arms, terracotta, Gazi, 1300-1100 BC, AMH, 145284.jpg|Crowning terracotta goddess figure, Gazi, 1300-1100 BC, AMH
</gallery> ==Notes== {{commonscat}} {{reflist|2}}
{{Minoan civilization}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Horns Of Consecration}} Category:Minoan religion Category:Minoan art Category:Sacred bulls Category:Religious symbols