DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0027
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
125
example, a fair presumption in favour of the view that certain specialised
figures such as the bronze statuettes from Tiryns and Mycenae published by
Schliemann may actually portray
divinities and have partaken of the
nature of cult images. To these
two examples from Greek soil may
now be added two more belonging
to the same type, one of bronze
found in the votive stratum of the
Cave of Hermes Kranaios, near
Sybrita in Crete (Fig. 15) the other
of silver found near Nezero, on the
borders of Thessaly ami Macedonia1
(Fig. 16). The statuettes in ques-
tion unquestionably show a close
family likeness to certain North
Syrian or ' Hittite' bronzes.2 They
have been supposed to represent
imported fabrics from the same
Oriental source ; but their style is
superior to that of the contemporary
Syrian bronzes, and their more
naturalistic forms proclaim them to
be of true Mycenaean workmanship.
Their characteristic attitude, as well
as the Egyptianising helmet, brings
them in close relation to the figures
of Resheph, the Semitic Lightning
God, on Egyptian monuments.3 A
certain assimilation between this
divinity and the Cretan Zeus may
perhaps account for this likeness ;
and the discovery of an Egyptian
bronze statuette of Amen, another
foreign analogue to the indigenous
Cretan God, amidst the votive figures
1 Both are in the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford.
- For speeimens of these Syrian bronzes see
Perrot, &c, iii. p. 405, No. 277. Helbig,
Question Myc(n(enne, p. 15 seqq. Fig. 6-9.
One is from Antaradus (Tartiis), Mother
from Laodicea (Latakich), and two others
from Northern Phoenicia. Another fine
'Hittite' example was in the Tyszkiewicz
collection. Helbig, while admitting that the
Peloponnesian examples ' revelent on style
Fig. 15.—Mycenaean Figurine of Bronze
from Cave of Hermes Kranaios, near
Sybrita, Crete.
plus souple et qui, par la rondeur de ses
formes, se rapprochent deja considerableinent
de la nature', regards this as a more recent
development of the same Oriental school, and,
with Tsuntas f'Bf. 'Apx- 18911 p. "23), sees in
them imported 'Phoenician' objects. But
the Mycenaean examples are, if anything,
earlier in date, and the two groups belong to
very different schools, of which the Syrian is
(as usual) the more barbarous.
3 See W. Max Miiller, Asien und Eurojut.
125
example, a fair presumption in favour of the view that certain specialised
figures such as the bronze statuettes from Tiryns and Mycenae published by
Schliemann may actually portray
divinities and have partaken of the
nature of cult images. To these
two examples from Greek soil may
now be added two more belonging
to the same type, one of bronze
found in the votive stratum of the
Cave of Hermes Kranaios, near
Sybrita in Crete (Fig. 15) the other
of silver found near Nezero, on the
borders of Thessaly ami Macedonia1
(Fig. 16). The statuettes in ques-
tion unquestionably show a close
family likeness to certain North
Syrian or ' Hittite' bronzes.2 They
have been supposed to represent
imported fabrics from the same
Oriental source ; but their style is
superior to that of the contemporary
Syrian bronzes, and their more
naturalistic forms proclaim them to
be of true Mycenaean workmanship.
Their characteristic attitude, as well
as the Egyptianising helmet, brings
them in close relation to the figures
of Resheph, the Semitic Lightning
God, on Egyptian monuments.3 A
certain assimilation between this
divinity and the Cretan Zeus may
perhaps account for this likeness ;
and the discovery of an Egyptian
bronze statuette of Amen, another
foreign analogue to the indigenous
Cretan God, amidst the votive figures
1 Both are in the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford.
- For speeimens of these Syrian bronzes see
Perrot, &c, iii. p. 405, No. 277. Helbig,
Question Myc(n(enne, p. 15 seqq. Fig. 6-9.
One is from Antaradus (Tartiis), Mother
from Laodicea (Latakich), and two others
from Northern Phoenicia. Another fine
'Hittite' example was in the Tyszkiewicz
collection. Helbig, while admitting that the
Peloponnesian examples ' revelent on style
Fig. 15.—Mycenaean Figurine of Bronze
from Cave of Hermes Kranaios, near
Sybrita, Crete.
plus souple et qui, par la rondeur de ses
formes, se rapprochent deja considerableinent
de la nature', regards this as a more recent
development of the same Oriental school, and,
with Tsuntas f'Bf. 'Apx- 18911 p. "23), sees in
them imported 'Phoenician' objects. But
the Mycenaean examples are, if anything,
earlier in date, and the two groups belong to
very different schools, of which the Syrian is
(as usual) the more barbarous.
3 See W. Max Miiller, Asien und Eurojut.