In the Museum at Rethymnon there is a Minoan clay idol (Mus. No. 22) of the type of the goddess with uplifted hands. This comes from the village of Sakhtouria in the eparchy of Ayios Vassilios in the Rethymna nome.
The idol is 33·3 cm. high, with the base 9·2 cm. in diameter. The space between the arms at its widest extent measures 33 cm. The left arm and both the hands are missing, together with parts of the chest, neck, jaw, nose, crown of the head, and base. The missing sections have been restored in plaster, except for the hands and parts of the jaw and nose (Plate 41, a, b). The idol is hollow inside, and the lower part of the trunk is tubular with a narrow splayed border round the bottom (Plate 42, a). A splayed base of this type is a regular feature of Late Helladic clay figurines.
The eyes are indicated by slight bulges, and the eyebrows by single curving lines in relief which extend down the sides of the cheeks as far as the jaw and strongly emphasize it (Plate 42, b). The ears are represented by means of a boldly rendered nearly circular fillet in relief (Plate 43, a, b). The crown of the head is filletted, but there are no traces of any attachments for ornaments or sacred symbols, and the hair must have been rendered in paint to judge from the traces of black on the back part of the head immediately below the crown. The features of the face are expressed in generalized but vigorous terms. The face is markedly triangular in shape.
According to the generally accepted view the type of the goddess with uplifted hands first appeared in Crete at the beginning of the Late Minoan IIIB period. In 1958 Professor Doro Levi excavated a Minoan villa near Gortyna, and came upon a shrine there with idols of this type which he assigned on a basis of the pottery recovered to Late Minoan I. The question of the early appearance of the type was thus revived.