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Entheogenic Influences in Minoan Art

by Geerto A. S. Snijder

An Excerpt from Kretische Kunst [Cretan Art] (1936)

Translated by Scott J. Thompson

Translator's Introduction:

First appearing in German during the early years of the Third Reich, Dutch archaeologist Geerto A.S. Snijder's now forgotten Kretische Kunst [Cretan Art] (Berlin, Verlag Gebr. Mann, 1936) was recognized in its day by leading scholars of antiquity as the first attempt to analyze the psychological dimension of Minoan art. Among the scholars acknowledged for their contributions and correspondence, Snijder mentioned both Henri Frankfort of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and D.S. Robertson, whose Greek and Roman Architecture remains a classic and standard in the field. In his review of Snijder's later work, Minoische und mykenische Kunst: Aussage und Deutung (1980) [Minoan and Mycenaean Art: Testimony and Interpretation] in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, British archaeologist, Sinclair Hood has referred to the enduring relevance of Snijder's contribution.

"G.A.S. Snijder began writing on the subject of Greek and Roman art in the early 1920s. His concern with Aegean prehistoric art goes back to that time. A major article on Minoan art was followed by his book Kretische Kunst 1936), which was a landmark and is still important with a useful summary of the literature bearing on the subject until that date. Snijder had much to say that was new and interesting; but is perhaps best known for his theory that the Bronze Age Cretans were eidetics, sharing with other primitive peoples a power of actually projecting an image upon a surface and drawing it..." [1]

Seen in retrospect, Snijder's book can now be seen as an important precursor to the later pioneering ethnomycological studies of R. Gordon Wasson, Carl A.P. Ruck and others. Though Kretische Kunst is rarely cited in bibliographies in English on either Cretan Art or entheogens, a close reading of the book's sixth chapter, "The Significance of the Eidetic in Cretan Art" should help to re-establish Snijder's rôle in entheogenic research. Following the hypothesis of Sir Arthur Evans that the sacred tree cult with its fruit that "like the Soma of the Vedas, supplies the religious frenzy, and at the same time implies a communion with the divinity inherent in the tree," Snijder had the insight to direct his attention to the religious rôle of intoxicating plants in general, and to compare the Cretan tree cult with the pharmacological cults of other cultures, such as the Huichol Indians of North America. As an archaeologist and museum curator, Snijder was then able to apply his insights and comparative research to the detailed discussion of Minoan seal-rings, whose scenes of ecstatic cult worship are often depicted in the presence of plants and goddesses.

It was by no means a coincidence that the review of Snijder's Kretische Kunst in the 1937 issue of the Journal of Hellenic Studies was written by German psychologist, W. Mayer-Gross. Having written numerous monographs on the use of mescaline in experimental psychopathology, Mayer-Gross was eminently qualified to evaluate Snijder's speculation regarding the eidetic abilities of the Minoans. Forced to flee Hitler's Third Reich, Mayer-Gross also regarded Snijder's indebtedness to the racially-based psychology of brothers E.R. and W. Jaensch with a great deal of scepticism, as the following lengthy excerpts from that review testify.

"Cretan Art is, in the opinion of the author [Snijder], especially suited to a psychological approach because it is self-contained, its main products can easily be surveyed from the beginning to the end, and no fixed scientific doctrine exists with regard to its historical place. On the contrary, there is a large diversity of opinion as to its origin and its environmental interrelations. An account of the disputable views is given in the introductory chapter. It is followed by a descriptive analysis of the most important works of Cretan painting which Snijder has chosen as the special object of his investigations...

"The underlying ideas of this interpretation, as developed in the third chapter...are those of E.R. Jaensch (and W. Jaensch) on so-called eidetic imagery. Investigating the well-known tendency of children to vivid visualization in play and day-dreaming, Jaensch found in a considerable proportion of children between the ages of 6 and 11 approximately, an intensification of visual memory. They are able to reproduce all the details of objects and pictures with a degree of exactitude which seems almost similar to that of the physiological after-image. But the duration of this reproduction exceeds by far the few seconds in which the after-image is visible; it not only lasts much longer, but may be awakened again deliberately. Thus 'Anschauungsbilder ' (eidetic images), as Jaensch called them, are to be regarded as phenomena in between the after-images and the visual images of adult memory. The faculty of producing eidetic images disappears in most persons at the time of puberty; it is rearely preserved in adults, some of whom become artists. Two types of eidetic images can be distinguished, which Jaensch has linked up with types of personality and constitution: the T- type whose images are rigid and not influenced by phantasy, and the B - type with mobile and plastic eidetic phenomena. The discovery of the impressive and vidiv visualization has thrown new light on those aspects of child psychology which are related to reality and thinking. If eidetic images are seen just like real objects, phantasy and reality are mixed up; the distinction between the self and the world is much less sharp ('fairy-tale period') and instead of the antithesis: subject and object, a kind of unity is experienced: 'eidetische Einheitsphase.' Thinking takes place in terms of concrete pictures, until concepts which depend on verbalization are formed by the use of fully developed language, when the child outgrows the eidetic stage. If this stage is -- as Jaensch thinks -- an important phase in personal evolution, one might expect to find a similar stage in the evolution of humanity, e.g. in primitive people. This has also been proposed by Jaensch...

"The reader will by now certainly have guessed how Snijder applies psychological ideas to his subject: Cretan painting was not only produced by artists of the eidetic B - type, but also Cretan people themselves lived at this period in the eidetic phase of subject-object unity. The arguments put forward in support of this view are far too numerous to record here. They are of all varieties, from the biological....through psychological to arguments based on purely aesthetic qualities like colour, contour, etc. ....

"In the sixth chapter, finally, the significance of eidetic attitude is followed up into the different productions of Cretan art, and their content. The skeleton of hypothesis is thus filled in with flesh and blood which, however, cannot increase its structural solidity. When, for example, the use of intoxicants for an artificial enhancement of the eidetic faculties is suggested, the conjectural nature of such an assumption cannot be emphasized sharply enough...." [2]

While Snijder's dependence on the 'eidetic psychology' of E.R. Jaensch can be seen as one of the book's serious weaknesses, Snijder's focus on 'the use of intoxicants for an artificial enhancement of the eidetic faculties' can be regarded as one of the book's major strengths, for the year that witnessed this book's publication also witnessed the discovery of the Minoan Poppy goddess figurine with upraised hands in Gazi, Crete. Through the efforts of Greek scholars Sp. Marinatos, P.G. Kritikos and Stylianos Alexiou, the Poppy goddess has now become universally recognized as an opium goddess. Seen in relation to the ethnomycological studies of Wasson and Ruck, Snijder's speculation regarding the use of other psychotropic plants in Minoan religion seems less 'conjectural' and more deserving of serious scholarly consideration.

"The Significance of the Eidetic in Cretan Art"

An Excerpt from Chapter Six of Cretan Art (1936)

Were we to restrict our investigation to Crete in particular, our hypothesis that a 'phase of eidetic unity' existed there would not necessarily presuppose that the state of consciousness amongst the Cretan populace was unequivocally uniform. Aside from the natural variability between individuals, one must also consider the possibility of an artificial variation from the general norm of consciousness. In his Grundzüge einer Psychologie und Klink der psychophysischen Persönlichkeit (1926) [Principles of a Psychology and Clinic of the Psychophysical Personality], W. Jaensch has drawn attention to the hallucination-like visions which often appear to children as a consequence of various illnesses. He sees in this a pathological intensification of the child's eidetic predisposition, and the grounds for this may be found in the self-poisoning of the organism brought on by illness. It is worth recalling the special religious significance which was attached to certain states of illness in antiquity when they were accompanied by hallucinations, such as epilepsy. We can disregard this pathological 'eidetism' in the present context.

In the course of his investigations, Jaensch was also able to show that the administering of psychopharmaka [sinnestäuschenden Giften] to eidetically gifted test subjects artificially evoked hallucinations and visions in a far stronger measure than was the case with test subjects who were not eidetically predisposed. To this purpose, Jaensch used a potent 'phantasticum,' the so-called mescaline (peyote) derived from the cactus, Anhalonium Lewinii, minute doses of which were enough to strongly intensify the ability of eidetically gifted individuals to see eidetic images. Jaensch's investigations were not concerned with that remarkable intoxication of the senses which accompanies stronger dosages, an intoxication which this substance has made so well-known that its history is well-nigh mythical in its native land of Mexico. Various Indian tribes have formed an actual cult and an entire religion around this cactus, which occupies the central position and is worshipped as a god [3]. Now, while it is impossible that this or a related kind of cactus had anything to do with ancient Crete, since the cacti so characteristic of southern climes were only introduced to Crete after the discovery of America, it is nonetheless worth making the effort to clearly delineate the possibility of a similar cult. Not only do we find evidence in Crete of a remarkably similar tree cult, but we also have good grounds for assuming that this entailed no merely abstract worship of 'fertility.' The sacred tree or its fruit had a very concrete significance in the cult. Evans has already arrived at the conclusion that the meal of fruit made up the climax of the worship and that the juice: "like the Soma of the Vedas, supplies the religious frenzy, and at the same time implies a communion with the divinity inherent in the tree" [4]. We see, therefore, that one of the best authorities in the field has arrived at a conception of a deity which is extraordinarily similar to that of the Mexican Indians discussed above.

Now we know very little about the Soma of the Vedic Indians. As for the sacred tree of Crete, we can form no idea of exactly what kind of plant is depicted in the representations that have been preserved. One is reminded of the date palm in certain instances [see figure 1, at left], but even if it is quite easy to produce an intoxicating drink from its fruit, the idea that it could produce 'religious frenzy' cannot be seriously entertained. The depiction of the tree is often so schematic that it not only is difficult to recognize as a date palm, but rather is difficult to recognize as a tree at all [see figure 2, gold signet ring, at right: from a tomb of Isopata near Knossos c.1500 BCE; Museum of Herakleion, Crete]. It is usually assumed that the tree is rising up from behind a gateway. A case of overlapping such as this is unusual on the engraved gems and seal-rings which contain most of the representations. What is more, the construction which is supposed to be a gateway is by no means unambiguous and could just as well be an altar [see figures 3 and 4, below left.] There is absolutely no discernible difference between this 'gateway' and the altar which stands in front of the sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. In certain cases, it is suddenly clear that the tree does not stand behind the 'gateway,' but rather upon the altar table; at least, this is my interpretation. The sacred tree would then be better seen as a sacred bush instead. This also explains its transport by ship [see figure 5, below right.] Since the representations in question are in no way sufficient for establishing an unequivocal determination of this plant, we are at liberty to ask whether there might be an alternative path of inquiry which would help us to make a more positive identification.

We know precious little about the forms of the Minoan 'tree cult,' and in the final analysis can only speculate. One thing seems quite certain, however: ecstatic, orgiastic scenes are depicted on these seal-rings, and the participants in the cult have entered, by whatever means, into a state of being 'beside themselves' and are not in a normal state of mind. One could attribute these scenes to religious rapture, but when the relationship to the 'sacred tree' is directly expressed so often, it appears quite obvious that the fruit of this tree or bush is, to adopt Evans's conclusion, related to the engendering of such a state.

This fruit, moreover, cannot have been such a harmless one. We would do well, first of all, to direct our attention to intoxicating plants. In this context, it is worth considering that the distinction between a poisonous and a harmless plant was not as clear to the consciousness of a Minoan as it is to us. For such a person, there must have been plants which possessed a tremendous potency, a magical power which would have been fatal to the unsuspecting, and which could have been controlled as a magical substance by the experienced. It is clear that such wisdom is based upon experience and a great many experiments, and we will certainly not be in error if we ascribe such knowledge to the 'medicine men' of the people: the priests. The context itself suggests the connection to religion.

Were there poisons in the region of Crete which were capable of bringing about an intoxication of the senses? The first candidates which come to mind are the various species of henbane (Hyoscyamus) and thornapple (Datura stramonium). They grew throughout the entire Mediterranean and their efficacy was generally known in antiquity. One is particularly inclined to think of henbane here, for the nomenclature of this plant, which Dioscorides has preserved for us, has close affinities to religious ideas. Hypnoticon, Prophetes, Dios cyamus, Pythonion and Apollinaris are a few of its names, of which the last two strike me as particularly significant in light of the close relation of Delphi to Crete. The other names are characteristic of this poison's effect. Numerous testimonies show that it was indeed utilized throughout antiquity. The oldest reports of these are the most important for our purposes, and therefore we mention Homer above all as a reference. We find the substance Nepenthes mentioned by him as a sedative. It is a magic potion which Helen mixes, and she is to have obtained this and other secrets from the Egyptian, Polydamna. According to the description of its effect, it has been identified by Lewin as opium, i.e. poppy juice, and there is no question that the Greeks as well as the Cretans were well-acquainted with the poppy [Lewin, Phantastica, p.41]. In a religous scene depicted on a ring from Mycenae, one of the priestesses is even holding three unmistakable poppy heads in her hand [see figure 1 at beginning of article]. Other scholars, however, have identified Nepenthes as henbane, and in favor of this interpretation it may at least be mentioned that, according to Dioscorides, a certain henbane preparation is a more effective painkiller than opium. It is not at all improbable that both interpretations are correct, for with magical potions one expects no 'simple' solution. It is much more a question of the proper, secret concoction of ingredients. At any rate, this account proves that a long tradition stretching back to at least the Minoan age was known in Homeric times. And what of Circe ("Goddess she is, or lady?")? Are not memories of magical substances from prehistoric times perserved in her hallucination-engendering pharmaka lygra (baneful drugs)? [5] And what of the mysterious moly, whose name was evidently known only by the gods, and which the masculine god, Hermes, gave to Odysseus as protection and a sign of his victory over the goddess of the past? Be that as it may, so much is certain: Hyoscyamus (scopolamine, atropine) is capable of producing hallucinations and visions, and this intoxicating plant grows throughout the Mediterranean and was generally known. There are good reasons for assuming that the Cretans made use of it as well.

The investigations conducted by Jaensch which we have mentioned show us that merely minimal doses (of mescaline) are needed for eidetic individuals to experience a powerful intensification of their natural ability to see eidetic images. In light of the inferred eidetic aptitude of the Cretan, the intoxicating plants which we have discussed would have been particularly effective in producing hallucinations and visions, especially when they were administered in carefully tested doses and when all the accompanying circumstances were orchestrated to achieve a maximum religious effect. The sacred plant which displays a tremendous, dangerous or even fatal power in a layman's hands was subject to the wisdom of the priesthood and the cult, where it would have been used above all to produce the epiphany of the diety, however possible such may have been via other methods. Amongst an eidetically predisposed people, the visions would have been easier to direct and influence than would be the case among normal, modern non-eidetic individuals, whose ability to resist would have to be overcome by much higher dosages, which in turn would unleash a completely uncontrollable intoxication. It may be further assumed that visions and hallucinations possess a higher degree of reality and a greater authenticity for the eidetic individual than they do for non-eidetic individuals. The normal, optical images of an eidetic individual would tend to combine with the artificial visions since he would actually see the images in both cases.

Now although I am personally inclined to believe that the Cretans used 'phantastica' in their cult of the gods, this cannot be proved. We cannot rule out the possibility of self-intoxication, be it through physical influences such as exhaustion in cult dancing or through powerful psychic stimuli which religion can arouse and then bring to a state of equilibrium. All of this, however, is beyhond our ability to judge with any kind of certainty. For our purposes, it is of primary importance that we possess in phantastica, whether mescaline or scopolamine, substances for the 'medical splitting of the personality' of a modern, normal individual, and therefore have the possibility of achieving insight into the spiritual processes which would otherwise be denied to us.

When we direct our attention to Cretan art and observe it as a unity, we find at the outset 'ornament' and 'image' side by side and even merged into one another. Alongside the pictorially accurate figures in wood grain and the colorful graining of stones, there are the 'mottled-ware' vases with their bizarre patches of color which seem haphazardly speckled and then all at once solidify into regular patterns. On one of the most well-known examples, the beaked jug from Vasiliki, we can see that the spout of the jug has become transformed into a bird's head. The argument advanced by Schlosser concerning the connection between 'ornament' and 'image' is proven in this example. In the Kamares decoration at the beginning of the Middle Minoan Period, however, this separation between ornament and image can no longer be sustained. Sometimes there are fish, mussels, a beetle, a heron, ibexes and flowers which are more or less pictorially accurate. Sometimes there are spirals, rosettes and palmettes which appear in wild movemnt and dazzling splendor, and sometimes the nature motif begins to move, to turn, and splashes in all directions like fireworks, and then a simple linear form suddenly blossoms into view [see figures 6 and 7, at left]. The product of an immensely animated imagination, one would say.

Were there actually 'phantasies', i.e. visions or 'eidetic images' which the artist saw before his eyes and reproduced here? I incline toward this assumption. The figures make the impression that they are developing before our very eyes, so that it is never the case of a 'combination' of ornamental and pictorial elements or even of a conscious stylization of 'naturalistic' phenomena. The figures in each example are self-contained, unique, complete and different from one example to the next. Only rarely do individual 'motifs' repeat themselves, and these are generally subordinated to the total character of the work.

Through experiments with mescaline we now know that 'ornamental' visions of this sort are by no means rare occurrences. In mescaline visions it is even possible to pin down a series of 'form-constants.' Kaleidoscopic ornamentation which is either in motion or grouped symmetrically around a central point repeatedly occurs, as do arabesques, spirals and general regular movements. Luminous, saturated color is also characteristic and one can observe above all that ornament and image merge into and grow out of each other. By themselves, these observations would have little power to persuade, for mescaline visions are artificial and we cannot assume that the Kamares potter ingested henbane while doing his work, although memories of artificially engendered visions are a possibility. It may be demonstrated, however, that similar visions also occur without any intentional derangement of the senses. Among the earliest artistic productions of the mentally disburbed woman [discussed earlier in this book], there are a number of extremely remarkable silhouettes which demonstrate a perfect amalgamation of ornament and image. In figure 8 [at right], we can see (a) a dog whose body and extremities turn into wildly animated ornament, or (b) a bird consisting only of a head from which emerge three long, serrated gills, one of which flows into an arabesque. Its position directly next to (c) is particularly instructive. The figure in (c) faithfully reproduces the likeness of a bird sitting on a branch, as if seen from above. It is noteworthy that the images of bird and branch are conceived and reproduced as an entirety. It is self-evident that this picture, seen as a dark silhouette against the bright sky, has been retained as an eidetic image. The reproduction of this entire image has then become newly conceived as a new slice of reality and has been converted into a second eidetic image. The entire bird's body has become the head in (b), the forked branches have become thicker and have begun to lead a separate existence. We call this separate existence 'ornament', but in just such a case as this one, unlike several other examples where the appendages have been replaced by spirals, such a characterization is mistaken. For in the end, one can only speak of ornament when there is both the intention of decorating something and when that 'something' to be decorated is actually present. In this instance, however, this 'ornament' appears to be completely unconnected and detached from any kind of object. It is there merely as a depiction or manifestation [Versichtbarung] of something which is not visibly present in reality: movement. Movement only becomes optically perceptible as a quality in relation to things. At the same time, however, it is relayed via motor nerve impulses and can be kinetically translated into the gesture of graphic representation. It is theoretically conceivable that movement appears in an eidetic image as something completely detached from the outward appearances of reality. Goethe is thus said to have possessed the ability to see moving and changing kaleidoscopic patterns, as is indicated in his thoughts on gothic windows. Furthermore, in the descriptions of mescaline visions, we find continually moving, kaleidoscopic arrangements of regular forms. Here too, however, the 'ornament' is continually conceived in transformation and becomes 'image,' just as the 'image' is again transformed into 'ornament.' In practice, this artificial distinction between motory and optical experience does not exist. When the ornamental ---I would prefer to call it the 'purely dynamic'--- character is so pronounced, as in the early silhouettes of the mentally disturbed woman artist and, above all, in Kamares pottery, one can speak, at best, of a predominance of the motory component. If a conclusion having a phylogenetic significance for our subject can be drawn from the example of this woman, whose dynamically oriented phase was at the beginning of her artistic career, then we may say that the dynamically oriented Kamares art appears where we would, by analogy, expect it. At any rate, it is compatible with our assumption of an eidetic predisposition.

----translated from German by Scott J. Thompson

Notes

[1] Sinclair Hood, Review of Snijder's Minoische und mykenische Kunst, Journal of Hellenic Studies, CI, 1981, 220.

[2] W. Mayer-Gross, Review of Snijder's Kretische Kunst , Journal of Hellenic Studies,LVII, 1937 [Part II], 254-256.

[3] See Louis Lewin, Phantastica, Berlin, 1924 and Heinrich Klüver, "Mescal: The 'Divine' Plant and its Psychological Effects," 1928.

[4] Sir Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos, vol. III, p. 142.

[5]