DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0591
to tree- or plant-forms
517
shape imitates a wooden coffer, and is covered with a skin of fine
white stucco. On this ground the designs were drawn in yellow and
painted in a variety of colours.
The decoration comprises four panels, two long and two short.
Of the long sides one represents animal and vegetable offerings at a
'Minoan5 shrine (pi. xxvii, a). From the left a procession of five
women with bare white feet and long coloured robes advances towards
a table-altar, on which lies a spotted bull bound with red bands.
The blood flows from his throat into an amnion1 or bucket on the
ground; his frightened eyes are wide open; and his tail still whisks.
Beneath the table two goats, of some domesticated species, wait their
turn. Behind it stands a red-skinned man playing a double flute;
his' hair is long and falls in a couple of black tresses down his back;
a bordered robe covers him from neck to knee. Further to the right
a woman is standing at a small altar. She wears an ornament of
gold in her black hair, a white jacket sleeved to the elbow and
bordered with pink, and a baggy white skirt tailed and tufted with
red. She extends her hands over a small basin or basket, placed on
the altar. Above it, that is, beyond it are visible a beaked jug some-
what resembling- an oinochde and a two-handled basket full of fruit.
On the extreme right is a larger altar, of similar architectural design
but surmounted by four pairs of ritual horns2. Behind grows a sacred
tree probably meant for an olive3. Between the adjacent altars
appears a platform or base of two courses, from which rises a large
double axe of most remarkable aspect. A tapering pillar or tree-
1 Od. 3. 444 dfxv'iov. Eustath. in Od. p. 1476, 38 ff. KprjTes be a/xvibv rpaffLV dyyelov
et's 6 to alfxa ruov iepe'twv ebexovTO, aiixvibv tl bv wapd to alp.a. llbpaCKos ovv 6 \epa.irvTVios
IffTope?, (paui, wapa toIs 'lepairvTviois 'Iti aib'c'effda.l tt)v (puvrjv, alpLViov, daaews //era tov kolt
dpxvu ''wra trpo(pepop.evt)v irapix to cup-a. (prjal Se /ecu '' XwoWbSupos ihs et'/cos i)v /ecu irapa tw
Troi7]Trj ovtws avTO ttpo<pepeada.i, Trepiaipedrjvat. 5e t6 Iwto. vtto tivwv, cp. schol. H.M.Q. R.
Od. 3. 444. See further Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. i. 2. 133 C—D, G. Meyer Griechische
Grammatik3 Leipzig 1896 p. 267, Prellwitz Etym. JVorterb. d. Gr. Spr." p. 34, Boisac<|
Diet. etym. de la Langite Gr. p. 54.
The blood collected in the ixp.vi.ov would then be poured over the altar (Eustath.
loc. cit. p. 1476, 41 f. 'AttikoI Se acpayiov to tolovtov dyyelov eKa\ovv. eis 6 TrpuiTov alp.a
bexbfxevoi (iwiALp etrexeov = schol. H. M.Q. R. Od. 3. 444)—a rite suggestive of chthonian
worship (S. Eitrem ' Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Romer' in the Viden-
skapsselskapets Skrifter ii Hist.-Filos. Klasse 1914 no. 1 Rristiania 1915 p. 434 f.).
2 Cp. supra i. 506 ff.
3 R. Paribeni in the Rendiconti d. Liticei 1903 xii. 348 takes the tree to be either an
olive or a laurel. But in the A/on. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 42 f. he decides for an olive. So
do A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 282 ('derriere, semble s'epanouir un olivier'),
F. von Duhn in the Archiv f. Rel. 1909 xii. 164 (' Lorbeer oder 01, wahrscheinlich
letzteres'), Harrison Themis p. 161 ('an unmistakable olive-tree'), H. R. Hall Aigiean
Archaeology London 1915 p. 174 ('an olive-tree'). F. M. J. Lagrange in the Revue
Biblique Internationale Nouvelle Serie 1907 iv. 341 thinks it a shrub rather than a tree,
and suggests the agnus caslus.
517
shape imitates a wooden coffer, and is covered with a skin of fine
white stucco. On this ground the designs were drawn in yellow and
painted in a variety of colours.
The decoration comprises four panels, two long and two short.
Of the long sides one represents animal and vegetable offerings at a
'Minoan5 shrine (pi. xxvii, a). From the left a procession of five
women with bare white feet and long coloured robes advances towards
a table-altar, on which lies a spotted bull bound with red bands.
The blood flows from his throat into an amnion1 or bucket on the
ground; his frightened eyes are wide open; and his tail still whisks.
Beneath the table two goats, of some domesticated species, wait their
turn. Behind it stands a red-skinned man playing a double flute;
his' hair is long and falls in a couple of black tresses down his back;
a bordered robe covers him from neck to knee. Further to the right
a woman is standing at a small altar. She wears an ornament of
gold in her black hair, a white jacket sleeved to the elbow and
bordered with pink, and a baggy white skirt tailed and tufted with
red. She extends her hands over a small basin or basket, placed on
the altar. Above it, that is, beyond it are visible a beaked jug some-
what resembling- an oinochde and a two-handled basket full of fruit.
On the extreme right is a larger altar, of similar architectural design
but surmounted by four pairs of ritual horns2. Behind grows a sacred
tree probably meant for an olive3. Between the adjacent altars
appears a platform or base of two courses, from which rises a large
double axe of most remarkable aspect. A tapering pillar or tree-
1 Od. 3. 444 dfxv'iov. Eustath. in Od. p. 1476, 38 ff. KprjTes be a/xvibv rpaffLV dyyelov
et's 6 to alfxa ruov iepe'twv ebexovTO, aiixvibv tl bv wapd to alp.a. llbpaCKos ovv 6 \epa.irvTVios
IffTope?, (paui, wapa toIs 'lepairvTviois 'Iti aib'c'effda.l tt)v (puvrjv, alpLViov, daaews //era tov kolt
dpxvu ''wra trpo(pepop.evt)v irapix to cup-a. (prjal Se /ecu '' XwoWbSupos ihs et'/cos i)v /ecu irapa tw
Troi7]Trj ovtws avTO ttpo<pepeada.i, Trepiaipedrjvat. 5e t6 Iwto. vtto tivwv, cp. schol. H.M.Q. R.
Od. 3. 444. See further Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. i. 2. 133 C—D, G. Meyer Griechische
Grammatik3 Leipzig 1896 p. 267, Prellwitz Etym. JVorterb. d. Gr. Spr." p. 34, Boisac<|
Diet. etym. de la Langite Gr. p. 54.
The blood collected in the ixp.vi.ov would then be poured over the altar (Eustath.
loc. cit. p. 1476, 41 f. 'AttikoI Se acpayiov to tolovtov dyyelov eKa\ovv. eis 6 TrpuiTov alp.a
bexbfxevoi (iwiALp etrexeov = schol. H. M.Q. R. Od. 3. 444)—a rite suggestive of chthonian
worship (S. Eitrem ' Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Romer' in the Viden-
skapsselskapets Skrifter ii Hist.-Filos. Klasse 1914 no. 1 Rristiania 1915 p. 434 f.).
2 Cp. supra i. 506 ff.
3 R. Paribeni in the Rendiconti d. Liticei 1903 xii. 348 takes the tree to be either an
olive or a laurel. But in the A/on. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 42 f. he decides for an olive. So
do A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 282 ('derriere, semble s'epanouir un olivier'),
F. von Duhn in the Archiv f. Rel. 1909 xii. 164 (' Lorbeer oder 01, wahrscheinlich
letzteres'), Harrison Themis p. 161 ('an unmistakable olive-tree'), H. R. Hall Aigiean
Archaeology London 1915 p. 174 ('an olive-tree'). F. M. J. Lagrange in the Revue
Biblique Internationale Nouvelle Serie 1907 iv. 341 thinks it a shrub rather than a tree,
and suggests the agnus caslus.