DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0079
70
FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.
[339]
art;si the parallelism indeed is of a double nature, for the lion-headed being
on this primitive seal-stone is evidently intended to hold the pole with the
vessels. Had space allowed he would doubtless have been represented
bearing it on his shoulders as in Fisr. 55.
58a. 586. 58c.
Ite. 58.—Brown Steatite (Crete—Uncertain Locality).
But this carrier's function is precisely what is so often found in
the case of the mysterious daemons on the later gems, and in the well-
known fresco from Mycenae. The association with vessels also reminds us
59a.
595.
Fig. 59.—Crete (Berlin Museum).
of a familiar attribute of the lion-headed and other kindred beings of
Mycenaean times, and in the spouted vases that appear on this same group
of early seal-stones we may certainly see the prototypes of those carried by
these later daemons.34 It looks as if in the case of the present stone the
place of honour were occupied by some semi-divine protector or mythical
ancestor of the actual owner of the seal; and we may trace perhaps a refer-
ence to an originally totemic lion of a tribe or family.
On the succeeding face what appears to be the same lion-headed figure
is seen standing immediately behind a man in front of whom are two polyp-
3! See on these especially A. B. Cook, Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age, J. U.S.
xiv. (1894), p. 81 seqq.
Vol.
FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.
[339]
art;si the parallelism indeed is of a double nature, for the lion-headed being
on this primitive seal-stone is evidently intended to hold the pole with the
vessels. Had space allowed he would doubtless have been represented
bearing it on his shoulders as in Fisr. 55.
58a. 586. 58c.
Ite. 58.—Brown Steatite (Crete—Uncertain Locality).
But this carrier's function is precisely what is so often found in
the case of the mysterious daemons on the later gems, and in the well-
known fresco from Mycenae. The association with vessels also reminds us
59a.
595.
Fig. 59.—Crete (Berlin Museum).
of a familiar attribute of the lion-headed and other kindred beings of
Mycenaean times, and in the spouted vases that appear on this same group
of early seal-stones we may certainly see the prototypes of those carried by
these later daemons.34 It looks as if in the case of the present stone the
place of honour were occupied by some semi-divine protector or mythical
ancestor of the actual owner of the seal; and we may trace perhaps a refer-
ence to an originally totemic lion of a tribe or family.
On the succeeding face what appears to be the same lion-headed figure
is seen standing immediately behind a man in front of whom are two polyp-
3! See on these especially A. B. Cook, Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age, J. U.S.
xiv. (1894), p. 81 seqq.
Vol.