DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0594
520 The double axe in relation
bordered pink robe that reaches from his shoulders to his bare feet,
advances slowly from right to left. He holds a large golden lyre,
which has seven strings and sides shaped like the necks of swans1.
As he goes, he plucks the strings of the lyre, but apparently uses no
plektron\ In front of him moves a woman, whose fore-lock and
front curls peep out from beneath a golden head-dress of peculiar
type. She is clothed in a bluejacket and skirt with coloured borders;
and she carries a pink pole, on which are slung two particoloured
buckets. Before her stands another woman, wearing a white jacket
sleeved to the elbow and bordered with blue, also a baggy white
skirt tailed and tagged with red. She is engaged in pouring a red
liquid (wine? blood??) out of another brightly coloured bucket:1
into a larger jar or kratcr, which, being painted blue with circular
bands of yellow, may be taken to represent a silver vessel inlaid with
gold. It rests on a base between two pedestals, one consisting
of superposed steps, the other resembling a truncated pyramid4.
From each of these pedestals there springs a tapering pillar or tree-
trunk, thickly covered with green leaves5 and serving as the haft of
a yellow (gold?) double axe with duplicated blades and ravens (?)
perched upon them. As to the meaning of this scene, E. Petersen
has rightly insisted on the contrast between the one bare stem and
the two leaf}' stems, arguing that the former betokens the worship
1 Clearly shown by A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London 1907
p. 317 f. fig. 156.
2 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 37.
3 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 33 f., 36 regards all these buckets as
situlae of decorated metal (gold, silver, copper).
4 Pedestals of the sort have come to light in the palace at Hagia Triada (R. Paribeni
in the Rcndiconti d. Lincei 1903 xii. 338, id. in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 30), in the
palace at Phaistos (L. Pernier id. 1902 xii. 69 and 103), at Palaikastro (R. C. Bosanquet
in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901 —1902 viii. 300), in a small house at Knossos (Sir
A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1914 lxv. 68), in the ' Little Palace' at Knossos [id. it. 1914
lxv. 72), and in the Dictaean Cave (id. ib. 1914 lxv. 72 fig. 82).
5 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 29 thinks that the trunks are those of
palm-trees and suggests the date-palm (phoenix dac/ylifcra), but notes that palm-trunks
are cylindrical, not conical like these. His identification as palms is accepted by
A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 281 f. and by J. E. Harrison in the Trans-
actions of the Third Lnternational Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii.
154 f. E. Petersen in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Last. 1909 xxiv. 163, 168, 170 is
more reserved ('hier nur ein Pfeiler, dort zwei ; diese zwei mit griinem Laub umkleidet,
jener eine kahl und ohne Gran,' etc.). F. von Duhn in the Archiv f. Rel. 1909 xii. 173
was the first to recognise obelisks covered with cypress-leaves ('zwei cypressenge-
schmiickte Obelisken') and to recall the fact that at Knossos Rhea had an ancient grove of
cypresses (supra 1-649 n- 3)- Accordingly in the Transactions of the Third Lnternational
Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 189 I wrote : ' Professor von Duhn
kindly informs me that these supports are apparently pillars or posts covered with leaves
—most probably with cypress leaves. If so, they were obviously ritual substitutes for
cypress-trees.'
bordered pink robe that reaches from his shoulders to his bare feet,
advances slowly from right to left. He holds a large golden lyre,
which has seven strings and sides shaped like the necks of swans1.
As he goes, he plucks the strings of the lyre, but apparently uses no
plektron\ In front of him moves a woman, whose fore-lock and
front curls peep out from beneath a golden head-dress of peculiar
type. She is clothed in a bluejacket and skirt with coloured borders;
and she carries a pink pole, on which are slung two particoloured
buckets. Before her stands another woman, wearing a white jacket
sleeved to the elbow and bordered with blue, also a baggy white
skirt tailed and tagged with red. She is engaged in pouring a red
liquid (wine? blood??) out of another brightly coloured bucket:1
into a larger jar or kratcr, which, being painted blue with circular
bands of yellow, may be taken to represent a silver vessel inlaid with
gold. It rests on a base between two pedestals, one consisting
of superposed steps, the other resembling a truncated pyramid4.
From each of these pedestals there springs a tapering pillar or tree-
trunk, thickly covered with green leaves5 and serving as the haft of
a yellow (gold?) double axe with duplicated blades and ravens (?)
perched upon them. As to the meaning of this scene, E. Petersen
has rightly insisted on the contrast between the one bare stem and
the two leaf}' stems, arguing that the former betokens the worship
1 Clearly shown by A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London 1907
p. 317 f. fig. 156.
2 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 37.
3 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 33 f., 36 regards all these buckets as
situlae of decorated metal (gold, silver, copper).
4 Pedestals of the sort have come to light in the palace at Hagia Triada (R. Paribeni
in the Rcndiconti d. Lincei 1903 xii. 338, id. in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 30), in the
palace at Phaistos (L. Pernier id. 1902 xii. 69 and 103), at Palaikastro (R. C. Bosanquet
in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901 —1902 viii. 300), in a small house at Knossos (Sir
A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1914 lxv. 68), in the ' Little Palace' at Knossos [id. it. 1914
lxv. 72), and in the Dictaean Cave (id. ib. 1914 lxv. 72 fig. 82).
5 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 29 thinks that the trunks are those of
palm-trees and suggests the date-palm (phoenix dac/ylifcra), but notes that palm-trunks
are cylindrical, not conical like these. His identification as palms is accepted by
A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 281 f. and by J. E. Harrison in the Trans-
actions of the Third Lnternational Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii.
154 f. E. Petersen in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Last. 1909 xxiv. 163, 168, 170 is
more reserved ('hier nur ein Pfeiler, dort zwei ; diese zwei mit griinem Laub umkleidet,
jener eine kahl und ohne Gran,' etc.). F. von Duhn in the Archiv f. Rel. 1909 xii. 173
was the first to recognise obelisks covered with cypress-leaves ('zwei cypressenge-
schmiickte Obelisken') and to recall the fact that at Knossos Rhea had an ancient grove of
cypresses (supra 1-649 n- 3)- Accordingly in the Transactions of the Third Lnternational
Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 189 I wrote : ' Professor von Duhn
kindly informs me that these supports are apparently pillars or posts covered with leaves
—most probably with cypress leaves. If so, they were obviously ritual substitutes for
cypress-trees.'