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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0198
172 CRETE AND THE NORTH
Sidonius,1 which state that the Goths in general, and
King Thcodoric in particular, were very tall men with
long flowing wavy hair, prominent chests, and waists
pinched in " like insects." The description is, it may
be granted, startlingly reminiscent of the Boxers from
Hagia Triada and the Hunters from Vaphio. Yet it
is rash, on the strength of such a resemblance, and the
place names Gathaei in Arcadia, and Guthcion in Laconia,
to suggest a " Gothic " invasion of the ^Egean at some
date before 1500 b.c.2
The narrow waist is in origin only an artistic conven-
tion.3 It was an inheritance, perhaps, from the fiddlc-
shapcd idols of the Cyclades,4 where the exaggerated out-
line was an attempt to imitate life. Such an expedient
is common to primitive art; it is found, for instance, on
the rude Dipylon vases of the geometric period.5 In
fully developed Minoan art it was in all probability used
to give an impression of strength and agility; it is
certainly highly successful in doing so. There is a
curious analogy from the Japan of the eighth century
a.d.6 which was not, I believe, invaded by Goths. An
old man is singing what a gallant he was in the days of
his youth, when maidens gave him fine blue silk girdles
to make him gay,
. . . and narrow girdles
Of outland Kara fashion.
As slim I was then
As any wasp that soareth.
It is consistent, however, with this view as to the con-
1 Ep. i. 2, recedenle alvo pectus accedens. I owe the references
to Dr. T. Hodgkin. 2 Petrie, op. cit. p. 20.
3 So D. G. Hogarth, Cornhill, March 1903, p. 327.
4 See e.g. Phylakopi, Plate XXXIX. Nos. 18, 19; S.S. fig. 127,
p. 128 (Tiryns). The Beastmen, it may be noticed, have markedly
narrow waists; e.g. B.S.A.xi. fig. 10, p. 18; J.H.S. xxii. fig. 12, p. 80.
« E.g. Perrot and Chipiez, vii. fig. 66 = Hall, O.C.G. fig. 61, p. 249.
6 The Manyoshiu. F. V. Dickins, 1906, Oxford. Book XVI.
Part I. No. 203.
Sidonius,1 which state that the Goths in general, and
King Thcodoric in particular, were very tall men with
long flowing wavy hair, prominent chests, and waists
pinched in " like insects." The description is, it may
be granted, startlingly reminiscent of the Boxers from
Hagia Triada and the Hunters from Vaphio. Yet it
is rash, on the strength of such a resemblance, and the
place names Gathaei in Arcadia, and Guthcion in Laconia,
to suggest a " Gothic " invasion of the ^Egean at some
date before 1500 b.c.2
The narrow waist is in origin only an artistic conven-
tion.3 It was an inheritance, perhaps, from the fiddlc-
shapcd idols of the Cyclades,4 where the exaggerated out-
line was an attempt to imitate life. Such an expedient
is common to primitive art; it is found, for instance, on
the rude Dipylon vases of the geometric period.5 In
fully developed Minoan art it was in all probability used
to give an impression of strength and agility; it is
certainly highly successful in doing so. There is a
curious analogy from the Japan of the eighth century
a.d.6 which was not, I believe, invaded by Goths. An
old man is singing what a gallant he was in the days of
his youth, when maidens gave him fine blue silk girdles
to make him gay,
. . . and narrow girdles
Of outland Kara fashion.
As slim I was then
As any wasp that soareth.
It is consistent, however, with this view as to the con-
1 Ep. i. 2, recedenle alvo pectus accedens. I owe the references
to Dr. T. Hodgkin. 2 Petrie, op. cit. p. 20.
3 So D. G. Hogarth, Cornhill, March 1903, p. 327.
4 See e.g. Phylakopi, Plate XXXIX. Nos. 18, 19; S.S. fig. 127,
p. 128 (Tiryns). The Beastmen, it may be noticed, have markedly
narrow waists; e.g. B.S.A.xi. fig. 10, p. 18; J.H.S. xxii. fig. 12, p. 80.
« E.g. Perrot and Chipiez, vii. fig. 66 = Hall, O.C.G. fig. 61, p. 249.
6 The Manyoshiu. F. V. Dickins, 1906, Oxford. Book XVI.
Part I. No. 203.