DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0225
i82 RELIEFS ON VAPHEIO CUP A
Girl The other figure is that of a girl. Springing forward from some coign
bull. °f vantage she has locked both legs and arms round the monster's horns in
The such a way that it is not in his power to transfix her (Fig. 125). This sudden
twisting onslaught, with the full weight thrown on the bull's head, has twisted it half
feat. round and threatens to bring him down in full career, if not to break his
neck, a feat, we are told,1 which the Thessalian youths, springing from their
ponies, actually performed.
In an analogous motive, not infrequently found on seals and seal-
impressions of the early part of the Late Minoan Age, the attempt is made
to twist the animal's neck by seizing a horn in one hand and the jaw or
nozzle in the other.2
The figure on the Vapheio Cup, thus desperately at grips with the
horns of the great beast, is certainly that of a girl, in spite of the sinewy
limbs that it displays. This fact, not apparently noted in any description of
the scene, should be clear to any one intimate with Minoan iconography and
who remembers the parallel wall-paintings in which the sex is declared by
the white skin colour. In these, as already observed, the ' cow-boy' costume
is copied even to the imitation of the male ' sheath ',s the only distinction
being the more elaborate coiffure, at times accompanied by a bright bandeau
or ribbon over the forehead. In the present case the luxuriance of the locks
is in striking contrast to those of the fallen youth, which have a quite short
appearance in front. Here we see a kind of curling fringe above the fore-
head,4 while to prevent the exuberance of the tresses behind from becoming
an impediment, they are partly bound up into a kind of chignon, like the
Greek krobylos.
In this case the only olive-trees are those to which the cords are bound,
while elsewhere we see palm-trees, a sign perhaps of the more open country
in which the herd seeks escape.
Design on the Vapheio Cup B.
The subdued movement visible on the other cup (Fig. 123, b, and see
Figs. 126, 127) supplies a skilful foil to the sensational subjects of that
described above.
1 Pliny (H.N. viii. 172) relates of the PI. XIII, e, and cf. p. 213, Fig. 144 below,
mounted Thessalonian TavpoKaddirrai that * The front border of the hair is often
they were actually able to kill the bulls in waved in the case of male figures, but the
this manner ('cornu intorta cervice tauros fringe of short curls is a distinctive feature of
necare'). See below, p. 229. the women's coiffure, continually repeated in
2 See below, p. 231 and Figs. 162-4. wall-paintings.
3 P. of M., ii, Pt. I, p. 35, and Suppl.
Girl The other figure is that of a girl. Springing forward from some coign
bull. °f vantage she has locked both legs and arms round the monster's horns in
The such a way that it is not in his power to transfix her (Fig. 125). This sudden
twisting onslaught, with the full weight thrown on the bull's head, has twisted it half
feat. round and threatens to bring him down in full career, if not to break his
neck, a feat, we are told,1 which the Thessalian youths, springing from their
ponies, actually performed.
In an analogous motive, not infrequently found on seals and seal-
impressions of the early part of the Late Minoan Age, the attempt is made
to twist the animal's neck by seizing a horn in one hand and the jaw or
nozzle in the other.2
The figure on the Vapheio Cup, thus desperately at grips with the
horns of the great beast, is certainly that of a girl, in spite of the sinewy
limbs that it displays. This fact, not apparently noted in any description of
the scene, should be clear to any one intimate with Minoan iconography and
who remembers the parallel wall-paintings in which the sex is declared by
the white skin colour. In these, as already observed, the ' cow-boy' costume
is copied even to the imitation of the male ' sheath ',s the only distinction
being the more elaborate coiffure, at times accompanied by a bright bandeau
or ribbon over the forehead. In the present case the luxuriance of the locks
is in striking contrast to those of the fallen youth, which have a quite short
appearance in front. Here we see a kind of curling fringe above the fore-
head,4 while to prevent the exuberance of the tresses behind from becoming
an impediment, they are partly bound up into a kind of chignon, like the
Greek krobylos.
In this case the only olive-trees are those to which the cords are bound,
while elsewhere we see palm-trees, a sign perhaps of the more open country
in which the herd seeks escape.
Design on the Vapheio Cup B.
The subdued movement visible on the other cup (Fig. 123, b, and see
Figs. 126, 127) supplies a skilful foil to the sensational subjects of that
described above.
1 Pliny (H.N. viii. 172) relates of the PI. XIII, e, and cf. p. 213, Fig. 144 below,
mounted Thessalonian TavpoKaddirrai that * The front border of the hair is often
they were actually able to kill the bulls in waved in the case of male figures, but the
this manner ('cornu intorta cervice tauros fringe of short curls is a distinctive feature of
necare'). See below, p. 229. the women's coiffure, continually repeated in
2 See below, p. 231 and Figs. 162-4. wall-paintings.
3 P. of M., ii, Pt. I, p. 35, and Suppl.