DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0018
llf)
ARTHUR J. EVANS
on one side, and in this respect resembling the basket or Vannus placed
on the sacred pillar already described.
It is possible that the cult object from the Cyrenaica is of considerably
later date than that from the Diktaean Gave, but there can be no doubt as
to the parallelism presented by its constituent parts. Here, too, we have,
—moulded, it is true, into a single piece,—-the central object of worship, in this
case a sacred cone, with the table placed above it and the receptacle for
offerings on the upper surface.
Two interesting pieces of evidence seem to show that this baetylic table
formed a special feature in the indigenous Cretan cult, and even survived
to Roman times. On a Mycenaean lentoid gem found in Crete, and present-
ing in a variant form the Lions' Gate type,1 the sacred object on which the
forefeet of the animals rest is neither the columnar image nor the usual
Mycenaean altar with incurving sides, but an object consisting of a short
central column, with a slab above it, further supported by side legs (Fig. 10).
Here once more we recognise the essential features of the offertory table
placed above the sacred pillar.
Fig. 10.—Baetylic Table used as a Base Fig. 11.— Baetylic Altar on Coin of
for Sacral Lions on Cretan Gem. Cretan Community.
In a much later shape, and with the original idea of the pillar idol
merged in the sanctity of the whole block as a vehicle of offering, we find
the same religious element surviving in a form of altar which occurs on
certain coins of the Cretan community 2 as a badge of their common worship.
On these coins (Fig. 11), struck under the Roman dominion, and bearing
in an abbreviated form the legend KOINON KPHTflN, we still clearly
distinguish the central baetylic column and the offertory slab above, with the
legs at its angles. The table itself is here surmounted by a central
akroterion, and lateral excrescences which represent here, as elsewhere, the
tradition of the typical cult object of Mycenaean times, ' the horns of
consecration.'
obtained it when Consul at Bengasi, but no
account exists of the exact place or circum-
stances of its discovery.
1 More fully described below. See p. 161.
- Svoronos, Numinmatiqu<! Ue hi CrMe an-
eienne, PI. XXXV. 86.
ARTHUR J. EVANS
on one side, and in this respect resembling the basket or Vannus placed
on the sacred pillar already described.
It is possible that the cult object from the Cyrenaica is of considerably
later date than that from the Diktaean Gave, but there can be no doubt as
to the parallelism presented by its constituent parts. Here, too, we have,
—moulded, it is true, into a single piece,—-the central object of worship, in this
case a sacred cone, with the table placed above it and the receptacle for
offerings on the upper surface.
Two interesting pieces of evidence seem to show that this baetylic table
formed a special feature in the indigenous Cretan cult, and even survived
to Roman times. On a Mycenaean lentoid gem found in Crete, and present-
ing in a variant form the Lions' Gate type,1 the sacred object on which the
forefeet of the animals rest is neither the columnar image nor the usual
Mycenaean altar with incurving sides, but an object consisting of a short
central column, with a slab above it, further supported by side legs (Fig. 10).
Here once more we recognise the essential features of the offertory table
placed above the sacred pillar.
Fig. 10.—Baetylic Table used as a Base Fig. 11.— Baetylic Altar on Coin of
for Sacral Lions on Cretan Gem. Cretan Community.
In a much later shape, and with the original idea of the pillar idol
merged in the sanctity of the whole block as a vehicle of offering, we find
the same religious element surviving in a form of altar which occurs on
certain coins of the Cretan community 2 as a badge of their common worship.
On these coins (Fig. 11), struck under the Roman dominion, and bearing
in an abbreviated form the legend KOINON KPHTflN, we still clearly
distinguish the central baetylic column and the offertory slab above, with the
legs at its angles. The table itself is here surmounted by a central
akroterion, and lateral excrescences which represent here, as elsewhere, the
tradition of the typical cult object of Mycenaean times, ' the horns of
consecration.'
obtained it when Consul at Bengasi, but no
account exists of the exact place or circum-
stances of its discovery.
1 More fully described below. See p. 161.
- Svoronos, Numinmatiqu<! Ue hi CrMe an-
eienne, PI. XXXV. 86.