Mic. ke-re-na-i nei nuovi testi in lineare B di Tebe

The new theban tablet Fq 121 records barley offered to ma-ka, o-po-re-i, ko-wa, ko-ru-we and ke-re-na-i. In this paper I suggest that ke-re-na-i might be interpreted as /gerenais/ 'to the cranes', a derivative in -a from /geren/ 'crane', a gloss found both in Aelius Dionysius' and Hesychius' lexica. It is not surprising that cranes were among the recipients of ritual offerings, because there are several sacred animals elsewhere in the new theban texts, such as mules, snakes, birds, geese etc. Moreover, since the goddess ma-ka is probably to be connected with Demeter and there is evidence that cranes were sacred to Demeter in ancient Greece, the presence of ma-ka and ke-re-na-i on the same tablet can be used as another argument to support the interpretation of ke-re-na-i as 'cranes'.