DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0061
36 THE ITALIAN EXCAVATIONS
midway in size between the other two, represents one
single scene, and that with such masterly naturalism that
it seems irony that we cannot agree as to what it means.
A body of muscular-looking men in loin-cloths and flat
caps are marching in some kind of triumphal pro-
cession. Leading them is an elderly man of importance,
bareheaded, and with long flowing locks and a physio-
gnomy as distinctive as those of the gold masks from the
graves of Mycenae, and curiously like one of them.1 In
the middle are four persons—one an Egyptian priest,
if we may judge from the fact that he is without
the narrow native Cretan waist, playing the musical
metal rattle called a sistrum ; the other three, perhaps
women, shouting in chorus with open mouths. So much
is clear. The difficulty comes when we try to interpret
the curious garment worn by the elderly leader, and the
still more curious implements carried by him and his
followers. On one theory the scene represents a harvest
feast; on the other a triumph after a naval victory.
The former sees in the fringed scale-like object on the
leader's back a ceremonial "cope" with the markings
of fur or skin or wickerwork, the latter a coat of chain
armour. The one theory regards the long three-pronged
forks from the obvious point of view as agricultural
instruments, and the short cross-bar lashed to them at
a right angle just below the prongs as also serving some
function in rick-making ; the other sees in them a com-
posite naval weapon, in which the cross-bar was used
for grappling, and the fork as a bayonet.2
Whether the thanksgiving is one for success in peace
1 S.S. 1891, fig. 224, p. 226.
- Such as the 8opv8iUnavciv mentioned in the Laches, or the
Roman falx muralis. Savignoni, in Mon. Ant. xiii., compares
also the trident of the rctiarii and the (y\ea iptfrfyoa, of Iliad, xv.
711. The farmer's stick is, according to hi m, a koktiIv or £v<ttov.
See the battle by the ships in Iliad, xv. 384, 676-7, 730, 742. For
the other view, see Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxii. p. 389.
midway in size between the other two, represents one
single scene, and that with such masterly naturalism that
it seems irony that we cannot agree as to what it means.
A body of muscular-looking men in loin-cloths and flat
caps are marching in some kind of triumphal pro-
cession. Leading them is an elderly man of importance,
bareheaded, and with long flowing locks and a physio-
gnomy as distinctive as those of the gold masks from the
graves of Mycenae, and curiously like one of them.1 In
the middle are four persons—one an Egyptian priest,
if we may judge from the fact that he is without
the narrow native Cretan waist, playing the musical
metal rattle called a sistrum ; the other three, perhaps
women, shouting in chorus with open mouths. So much
is clear. The difficulty comes when we try to interpret
the curious garment worn by the elderly leader, and the
still more curious implements carried by him and his
followers. On one theory the scene represents a harvest
feast; on the other a triumph after a naval victory.
The former sees in the fringed scale-like object on the
leader's back a ceremonial "cope" with the markings
of fur or skin or wickerwork, the latter a coat of chain
armour. The one theory regards the long three-pronged
forks from the obvious point of view as agricultural
instruments, and the short cross-bar lashed to them at
a right angle just below the prongs as also serving some
function in rick-making ; the other sees in them a com-
posite naval weapon, in which the cross-bar was used
for grappling, and the fork as a bayonet.2
Whether the thanksgiving is one for success in peace
1 S.S. 1891, fig. 224, p. 226.
- Such as the 8opv8iUnavciv mentioned in the Laches, or the
Roman falx muralis. Savignoni, in Mon. Ant. xiii., compares
also the trident of the rctiarii and the (y\ea iptfrfyoa, of Iliad, xv.
711. The farmer's stick is, according to hi m, a koktiIv or £v<ttov.
See the battle by the ships in Iliad, xv. 384, 676-7, 730, 742. For
the other view, see Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxii. p. 389.