DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0059
34 THE ITALIAN EXCAVATIONS
indeed have been costly in solid gold, has its 18 inches
of height decorated by designs placed one above the
other in four separate zones. The second from the top
shows two furious charging bulls, one of them tossing
a man who hangs extended and helpless on its horns.
The rest of the zone is badly preserved, but the Italian
explorers consider that it represents a bull hunt, rather
than a scene from the bull ring, such as we see on the
frescoes at Knossos. The other three zones describe a
kind of gladiatorial show. Boxers are here seen in every
attitude, some triumphant with the left arm held out
for guarding, and the right drawn back to strike, one
(the figure in the top right corner of our illustration)
gathering himself together for his spring, like Hector
as he made ready to swoop on Achilles ; 1 others prostrate
on the ground, with their feet kicking in the air. The
helmets worn on two of the zones are of different types,
and on the bottom zone the boxers are bareheaded, and
may possibly be meant for youths, in contrast to the
men above them; there are traces of some kind of
boxing glove or cestus.
It is interesting to notice that boxers in a similar
" stylised " attitude are to be seen on the fragments
of a steatite pyxis found at Knossos in igoi,! and a clay
seal impression also found there in 1903.' On the latter
there is also behind the boxer a column with a rectangular
capital, such as occurs in the designs just described.
Pugilism was clearly one of the Minoan sports as well
as bull-baiting.
A visit to the Bologna Museum, or a glance at Zannoni
or Hoernes/ will show the connection between such a
fig. i. Sec also Paribcni in ibid. xii. 1903, p. 331, and Halbherr in
M.I.L. xxi. 5, 1905, pp. 240-1.
xxii. 3*-**s oJ|ttjtfw ii iiXft'f*
* B.S.A. vii. fig. 31, p. 05. 1 Ibid. ix. fig. 35, p. 56.
4 0/>. cit. above, p. 33. For the discovery of Late Minoan III.
vases at the head of the Adriatic, see below, pp. 125, 157.
indeed have been costly in solid gold, has its 18 inches
of height decorated by designs placed one above the
other in four separate zones. The second from the top
shows two furious charging bulls, one of them tossing
a man who hangs extended and helpless on its horns.
The rest of the zone is badly preserved, but the Italian
explorers consider that it represents a bull hunt, rather
than a scene from the bull ring, such as we see on the
frescoes at Knossos. The other three zones describe a
kind of gladiatorial show. Boxers are here seen in every
attitude, some triumphant with the left arm held out
for guarding, and the right drawn back to strike, one
(the figure in the top right corner of our illustration)
gathering himself together for his spring, like Hector
as he made ready to swoop on Achilles ; 1 others prostrate
on the ground, with their feet kicking in the air. The
helmets worn on two of the zones are of different types,
and on the bottom zone the boxers are bareheaded, and
may possibly be meant for youths, in contrast to the
men above them; there are traces of some kind of
boxing glove or cestus.
It is interesting to notice that boxers in a similar
" stylised " attitude are to be seen on the fragments
of a steatite pyxis found at Knossos in igoi,! and a clay
seal impression also found there in 1903.' On the latter
there is also behind the boxer a column with a rectangular
capital, such as occurs in the designs just described.
Pugilism was clearly one of the Minoan sports as well
as bull-baiting.
A visit to the Bologna Museum, or a glance at Zannoni
or Hoernes/ will show the connection between such a
fig. i. Sec also Paribcni in ibid. xii. 1903, p. 331, and Halbherr in
M.I.L. xxi. 5, 1905, pp. 240-1.
xxii. 3*-**s oJ|ttjtfw ii iiXft'f*
* B.S.A. vii. fig. 31, p. 05. 1 Ibid. ix. fig. 35, p. 56.
4 0/>. cit. above, p. 33. For the discovery of Late Minoan III.
vases at the head of the Adriatic, see below, pp. 125, 157.