Art often portrays incidents relevant to the study of Greek religion, but frequently essential information is missing. On a well-known sarcophagus from Ayías Triádhos in Crete, for example, a priestess dressed in a skin skirt assists at a sacrifice, flanked by wreathed axes on which squat birds. The significance of the scene has been much discussed. The birds have been regarded as epiphanies of deities, giving sacral meaning to the transformations in Homer. Again, since goddesses appear to preponderate in Minoan-Mycenaean art, while male deities are represented on an inferior scale, this has been thought to reflect the general superiority ...(100 of 5119 words)