DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0056
THE HAGIA TRIAD A SARCOPHAGUS 31
years ago, before the river deposit enlarged the delta, the
sea may almost have washed the foot of the hill.1 It
was here that the lords of Phaestos built a splendid
country villa,5 and the conflagration that overwhelmed
it has preserved for us here, as at Knossos, all that the
invaders did not think worth plundering.
The fresco on which a great brown cat is gathering
itself together to spring upon a red pheasants recalls a
well-known dagger-blade from the fifth Shaft grave at
Mycenae, in which cat-like animals hunt wild ducks in
a river marsh ; 4 but the fresco is, of course, on a larger
scale, the cat being 12 inches, the bird 4 inches high.
It is curiously similar in style and subject, though superior
in vivacity, to the cat and bird fresco of an XVII Ith
Dynasty tomb at Thebes.5
A painted sarcophagus gives us in greater detail than
we have ever had before a scene of primitive worship.6
On one side is a sacrificial procession, carrying offerings
towards the figure of a youth. He stands in front of a
richly decorated construction, that seems to be the
door of a tomb, or of a chapel crowning it. He is
completely wrapped in a mantle that covers even both
his arms, and the air of immobility that is thus given
to his figure suggests that we have here a representation
of the dead man himself.' On the other long side of the
sarcophagus is a bull bound by cords on a low altar,
while his blood pours into a bucket below ; the ends of
the cords are held by two white hands, those of a woman
without doubt, though the rest of the figure has been
destroyed ; above the animal a man with two long black
1 Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxii. p. 388.
a M.I.L. xxi. 5, Plates I.—IV. ; Rend. xiv. 1905, figs. 2-4.
3 Mon. Ant. xiii. 1903, Plate VIII. and pp. 57-8.
4 5..S. fig. 270, p. 266. e See p. 93.
• Paribcni in Rend. xii. 1003, pp. 343-8. It is unfortunately
not yet published.
7 Paribeni, op. cit; Evans, P.T. p. 169.
years ago, before the river deposit enlarged the delta, the
sea may almost have washed the foot of the hill.1 It
was here that the lords of Phaestos built a splendid
country villa,5 and the conflagration that overwhelmed
it has preserved for us here, as at Knossos, all that the
invaders did not think worth plundering.
The fresco on which a great brown cat is gathering
itself together to spring upon a red pheasants recalls a
well-known dagger-blade from the fifth Shaft grave at
Mycenae, in which cat-like animals hunt wild ducks in
a river marsh ; 4 but the fresco is, of course, on a larger
scale, the cat being 12 inches, the bird 4 inches high.
It is curiously similar in style and subject, though superior
in vivacity, to the cat and bird fresco of an XVII Ith
Dynasty tomb at Thebes.5
A painted sarcophagus gives us in greater detail than
we have ever had before a scene of primitive worship.6
On one side is a sacrificial procession, carrying offerings
towards the figure of a youth. He stands in front of a
richly decorated construction, that seems to be the
door of a tomb, or of a chapel crowning it. He is
completely wrapped in a mantle that covers even both
his arms, and the air of immobility that is thus given
to his figure suggests that we have here a representation
of the dead man himself.' On the other long side of the
sarcophagus is a bull bound by cords on a low altar,
while his blood pours into a bucket below ; the ends of
the cords are held by two white hands, those of a woman
without doubt, though the rest of the figure has been
destroyed ; above the animal a man with two long black
1 Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxii. p. 388.
a M.I.L. xxi. 5, Plates I.—IV. ; Rend. xiv. 1905, figs. 2-4.
3 Mon. Ant. xiii. 1903, Plate VIII. and pp. 57-8.
4 5..S. fig. 270, p. 266. e See p. 93.
• Paribcni in Rend. xii. 1003, pp. 343-8. It is unfortunately
not yet published.
7 Paribeni, op. cit; Evans, P.T. p. 169.