DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0009
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
107
apparently set in the ground between pairs of bulls, which also have double
axes between their horns. But this representation contains a still more inter-
esting feature. At the foot of the handle of axe, namely, appears in each case
that distinctive piece of Mycenaean ritual furniture elsewhere described as 'the
horns of consecration.' It occupies the same position in relation to the
double axe as in other cases it does to the pillar or tree forms of the divinity.
We have here therefore an indication that the double axe itself was an object
of worship, and represented the material form or indwelling-place of the
divinity, in the same way as his aniconic image of stone or wood. It is a form
of worship very similar to that described by Ammianus as still existing in his
days among the Alans of the East Pontic coastlands, who simply fixed a
naked sword into the ground with barbaric ritual, and worshipped it as the
God of War.1 A curious parallel to this is to be found in a Hittite relief at
Pterium,2 which represents a great sword with the blade stuck in the ground.
The handle here has come to life, and portrays the divinity himself and his
lion supporters.
Fig. 3.—Double Axe with 'Horns of Consecration' between Bulls' Heads with
similar Axes, Mycenaean Vase, Old Salamis.
The idea of the double axe as the actual material shape of the divinity,
the object into which his spiritual essence might enter as it did into his
sacred pillar or tree, throws a new light on the scene represented on the
large gold signet from the Akropolis treasure at Mycenae (Fig. 4). Here,
above the group of the Goddess and her handmaidens, and beneath the con-
joined figures of the sun and moon, is seen a double axe, which is surely
1 Amm. Marc. xxxi. 2, 21. ' Nee templum
apud cos visitor aut delubrum. . . . sed
gladius barbarieo ritn humi figitur nudus
eomque at Martem regiomun quas circumcir-
cant praesulcm verecundius colunt.' Prof.
Ernest Gardner also calls my attention to a
passage of the Schol. A on Iliad A 264;
(Rctireus) 7rfj|as iiKOVKiov iv rep fxtfratrdrcf) rys
- Pen'ot et Chipiez, L'Art dans VAntiquiti,
t. iv. j). 642 and p. 647, Fig. 320.
107
apparently set in the ground between pairs of bulls, which also have double
axes between their horns. But this representation contains a still more inter-
esting feature. At the foot of the handle of axe, namely, appears in each case
that distinctive piece of Mycenaean ritual furniture elsewhere described as 'the
horns of consecration.' It occupies the same position in relation to the
double axe as in other cases it does to the pillar or tree forms of the divinity.
We have here therefore an indication that the double axe itself was an object
of worship, and represented the material form or indwelling-place of the
divinity, in the same way as his aniconic image of stone or wood. It is a form
of worship very similar to that described by Ammianus as still existing in his
days among the Alans of the East Pontic coastlands, who simply fixed a
naked sword into the ground with barbaric ritual, and worshipped it as the
God of War.1 A curious parallel to this is to be found in a Hittite relief at
Pterium,2 which represents a great sword with the blade stuck in the ground.
The handle here has come to life, and portrays the divinity himself and his
lion supporters.
Fig. 3.—Double Axe with 'Horns of Consecration' between Bulls' Heads with
similar Axes, Mycenaean Vase, Old Salamis.
The idea of the double axe as the actual material shape of the divinity,
the object into which his spiritual essence might enter as it did into his
sacred pillar or tree, throws a new light on the scene represented on the
large gold signet from the Akropolis treasure at Mycenae (Fig. 4). Here,
above the group of the Goddess and her handmaidens, and beneath the con-
joined figures of the sun and moon, is seen a double axe, which is surely
1 Amm. Marc. xxxi. 2, 21. ' Nee templum
apud cos visitor aut delubrum. . . . sed
gladius barbarieo ritn humi figitur nudus
eomque at Martem regiomun quas circumcir-
cant praesulcm verecundius colunt.' Prof.
Ernest Gardner also calls my attention to a
passage of the Schol. A on Iliad A 264;
(Rctireus) 7rfj|as iiKOVKiov iv rep fxtfratrdrcf) rys
- Pen'ot et Chipiez, L'Art dans VAntiquiti,
t. iv. j). 642 and p. 647, Fig. 320.