Of the mind, or conceived in the mind, or power of the mind is the tutelary deity of snakes and fertility.
But the snake is also symbol of the underworld deity, so the Snake Goddess is related to chthonic aspects too. The first, who identified this Minoan Goddess and who described her domestic and chthonic role and her cult, was A. Evans. He tried to find parallels in the Egyptian religion and linked the Snake Goddess with an Egyptian Goddess of the Nile Delta, Wazet (Wadjyt). In the Egyptian mythology the snake was a personification of the goddess Kebechet, symbolized the purification by water in the funeral cult, so the snake became a protector of the pharaohs in their death. 1 The Indian snake goddess Manasa, literally meaning of the mind, or conceived in the mind, or power of the mind is the tutelary deity of snakes and fertility, worshipped mainly in Bengal an the eastern parts of India. 2  Diktynna, aka the Cretan Mistress of the Wild, is a possible identification. Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the snake goddess identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. Ma Manasa Devi, the snake goddess, is worshipped by Hindus, mainly for the prevention and cure of snakebites and infectious diseases like smallpox and chicken pox as well as for prosperity and fertility.  Minoan Goddess with Snakes. The faience figurine identified as Snake Goddess was discovered in 1903 by Arthur Evans in the Temple Repositories of the Knossos palace in the island of Crete in Greece. Photo of the original idol (1600 BC), actually exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion, Crete, in Greece. The fertility symbol, often mentioned as well as Mother Goddess, is a symbol that is common in many prehistoric, stone age religions. This belief of Mother Goddess, suppressed by Christianity, emerges again in the 18th century. ARTH Courses | ARTH 200 Assignments. From Snake Goddess to Medusa. One of the most intriguing archaeological finds in the remains of the Minoan palace at Knossos was the figure above which has been traditionally identified as the Snake Goddess.. Minoan culture flourished in the middle of the second millenium BCE. A comparison of one of the large number of representations of the story of Perseus Medusa from Archaic Greek art to the Minoan Snake Goddess illustrates the profound change that occurred with the supremacy of the Olympian Gods. A striking aspect of the Snake Goddess is her frontality combined with her hypnotic stare. The Snake Goddess. The Snake Goddess, or else the handling of snakes by priestesses, was extremely important in Minoan religion, as shown by the numerous figurines of snakes and women or goddesses handling them. The snake probably derived its symbolic importance from its ability to change its skin. In Egyptian mythology, there were numerous snake goddesses, such as Renenutet, the goddess of the true name a person received at birth. The true name was an aspect of the soul, granted by the Goddess. Her name meant ”Snake of Nourishment” or ”She Who Gives the True Name/Soul”. Snake Goddess indicates figurines of a woman holding a snake in each hand found during excavation of Minoan archaeological sites in Crete dating from approximately 1600 BCE. Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the snake goddess identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. 1 The Phoenician goddess Tanit, worshipped as a patron goddess of Carthage. 2  The Indian snake goddess Manasa, literally meaning of the mind, or conceived in the mind, or power of the mind is the tutelary deity of snakes and fertility, worshipped mainly in Bengal an the eastern parts of India. Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the snake goddess identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe. Having identified the Snake Goddess as a fertility deity associated with the Mother Goddess most archaeologists and art historians seem content to leave it at that, as if the term fertility deity somehow explains the meaning of the figurine. 
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/minoan_snake_goddess.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Goddess http://hinduism.about.com/od/hindugoddesses/a/manasa.htm http://www.culturetaste.com/Minoan-Goddess-with-Snakes-History-and-Meaning-67.html http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/Body/snake_goddess.htm http://potnia.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/symbols-of-the-minoan-goddess-religion/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Goddess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Goddess http://arthistoryresources.net/snakegoddess/fertility.html
snake goddess meaning