774 The snake of Athena
what are we to make of a white-ground lekythos from Gela, now in
the British Museum (fig. 568)1? A female figure is seen standing by
a column with a phidle in her right hand and a snake in front of her.
H. B. Walters2 thought her perhaps a priestess of Athena accom-
panied by the Erechtheion-snake. A. Fairbanks3suggested'a simple
scene of libation' and equated the woman with Artemis. But deities
are rare on vases of this class, and Mr C. D. Bicknell4 is content to
- H. B. Walters in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 397.
3 A. Fairbanks op. cit. i. 39.
4 So he tells me (29 June 1936).
what are we to make of a white-ground lekythos from Gela, now in
the British Museum (fig. 568)1? A female figure is seen standing by
a column with a phidle in her right hand and a snake in front of her.
H. B. Walters2 thought her perhaps a priestess of Athena accom-
panied by the Erechtheion-snake. A. Fairbanks3suggested'a simple
scene of libation' and equated the woman with Artemis. But deities
are rare on vases of this class, and Mr C. D. Bicknell4 is content to
- H. B. Walters in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 397.
3 A. Fairbanks op. cit. i. 39.
4 So he tells me (29 June 1936).