DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0034
132 ATCTHUR J. EVANS
ranean shores largely underlay the Semitic.1 We must never overlook the
fact that the most primitive culture that has come to light in large parts of
Western Asia and in all probability the early population that produced it
found its continuation on the European side. Similar classes of pottery, a
kindred family of primitive sepulchral images, and apparently allied elements
of an early pictography extend from Cyprus through Anatolia to the Greek
island world, the Danube Valley, and still further afield. The labrys as
we have seen is common to the Cretan and the Carian God.
But in any case it is the early religion of the Semitic world which
affords the most illuminating commentary on what we are able to reconstruct
from remaining records of the Mycenaean tree and pillar cult. It is from
this side that the clearest light is thrown on the true inwardness of many of
the cult scenes exhibited on the signet rings. It is indeed especially from
biblical sources that this form of worship receives its grandest illustration.
The Epiphanies and Visions of the Divine Presence beneath sacred trees and
beside holy stones and pillars are the most familiar means of Old Testament
revelation. It was in triple form beneath the terebinth of Mamre and in
the burning bush, that Jehovah first declared himself to Abraham and
Moses. So too it was beside the stone beneath his father's terebinth at
Ophrah that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon ; and Joshua set up
his Stone of Witness ' under the great oak that was by the Sanctuary of the
Lord at Shechem.' Sometimes the tree is a terebinth or oak, sometimes the
cypress, sometimes the tamarisk, sometimes, as in Deborah's case, the
palm. Trees and pillars of Canaanitish Gods were overthrown, but others
were planted and set up in honour of the Lord.2 It was only ' graven images'
that were condemned by the conservative precepts of the earlier Israelite
cult.
The worship of the sacred stone or pillar known as Masseba or no,?b is
very characteristic of Semitic religion. The classical record of this form of
worship is supplied by the biblical account of Jacob's dream with the stone
for a pillow beneath his head. ' And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil on the top of it.'3 Tbe pouring oil on the stone was a regular jiart
of the ritual in the case of this pillar worship, and the name given by him to
the spot, Beth-el—' the house of God,'—in reality attaches to the sacred stone
itself, as appears from Jacob's subsequent vow, 'this stone which I have set up
for a pillar shall be God's house.'4 It was in fact a place of indwelling of the
1 It is the more necessary to bear in mind gold rings as ' imports from the East' (p. 79),
the above considerations that Dr. H. Von anil apparently (p. S2neqq.) as of Phoenician
Fritze, in his recently published essay, ' Die fabric. Were it not for the fact that such
Mykenischen Golilringe and ihre Bedeutung views are still advanced, it would hardly seem
flir das Sacralwesen,' in Strena Hdb'ujiana, necessary to point out that the rings belong to
p. 73 Htqq. has revived the endeavour to use the same local Aegean school as the gems,
the religious parallels observable between the '-' Of. Botticher, Baumkttltux, p. 520.
Semitic religion and the Mycenaean cult 3 Genesis, xxviii. IS.
scenes as an evidence of direct derivation from 4 Genesis xxviii. 22.
an Oriental source. He regards the Jlycenaean
ranean shores largely underlay the Semitic.1 We must never overlook the
fact that the most primitive culture that has come to light in large parts of
Western Asia and in all probability the early population that produced it
found its continuation on the European side. Similar classes of pottery, a
kindred family of primitive sepulchral images, and apparently allied elements
of an early pictography extend from Cyprus through Anatolia to the Greek
island world, the Danube Valley, and still further afield. The labrys as
we have seen is common to the Cretan and the Carian God.
But in any case it is the early religion of the Semitic world which
affords the most illuminating commentary on what we are able to reconstruct
from remaining records of the Mycenaean tree and pillar cult. It is from
this side that the clearest light is thrown on the true inwardness of many of
the cult scenes exhibited on the signet rings. It is indeed especially from
biblical sources that this form of worship receives its grandest illustration.
The Epiphanies and Visions of the Divine Presence beneath sacred trees and
beside holy stones and pillars are the most familiar means of Old Testament
revelation. It was in triple form beneath the terebinth of Mamre and in
the burning bush, that Jehovah first declared himself to Abraham and
Moses. So too it was beside the stone beneath his father's terebinth at
Ophrah that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon ; and Joshua set up
his Stone of Witness ' under the great oak that was by the Sanctuary of the
Lord at Shechem.' Sometimes the tree is a terebinth or oak, sometimes the
cypress, sometimes the tamarisk, sometimes, as in Deborah's case, the
palm. Trees and pillars of Canaanitish Gods were overthrown, but others
were planted and set up in honour of the Lord.2 It was only ' graven images'
that were condemned by the conservative precepts of the earlier Israelite
cult.
The worship of the sacred stone or pillar known as Masseba or no,?b is
very characteristic of Semitic religion. The classical record of this form of
worship is supplied by the biblical account of Jacob's dream with the stone
for a pillow beneath his head. ' And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil on the top of it.'3 Tbe pouring oil on the stone was a regular jiart
of the ritual in the case of this pillar worship, and the name given by him to
the spot, Beth-el—' the house of God,'—in reality attaches to the sacred stone
itself, as appears from Jacob's subsequent vow, 'this stone which I have set up
for a pillar shall be God's house.'4 It was in fact a place of indwelling of the
1 It is the more necessary to bear in mind gold rings as ' imports from the East' (p. 79),
the above considerations that Dr. H. Von anil apparently (p. S2neqq.) as of Phoenician
Fritze, in his recently published essay, ' Die fabric. Were it not for the fact that such
Mykenischen Golilringe and ihre Bedeutung views are still advanced, it would hardly seem
flir das Sacralwesen,' in Strena Hdb'ujiana, necessary to point out that the rings belong to
p. 73 Htqq. has revived the endeavour to use the same local Aegean school as the gems,
the religious parallels observable between the '-' Of. Botticher, Baumkttltux, p. 520.
Semitic religion and the Mycenaean cult 3 Genesis, xxviii. IS.
scenes as an evidence of direct derivation from 4 Genesis xxviii. 22.
an Oriental source. He regards the Jlycenaean