Evans, Arthur: The Mycenaean tree and pillar cult and its Mediterranean relations: with illustrations from recent Cretan finds (London, 1901)

MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT,

139

above the central stele seems to mark the presence of Tanit, here represented
in a triple form. On a votive monument from Lilybaeum bearing a
dedication to Baal Hammon a worshipper stands before an incense altar
accompanied by the symbol of divinity and a caduceus, while above is abase
with three pillars of the usual kind.1 Here again the trinity of pillars is st ill
the abode of a single divinity, in this case Baal Hammon. Elsewhere we
see two groups of three pillars and the divine symbols above them, and on a
monument from Hadrumetum as many as nine pillars in a triple group of
three occur on a single base.2

In the votive niches of the ancient sanctuary discovered by Doughty
at Medain Sfilih in north-western Arabia the aniconic form of a single

Fig. 22.—Carthaginian Pillar Shrike Fig. 23.—Group of Sacred Pillars on

on Stele, Nora, Sardinia. Mycenaean Vase from Haliki.

divinity is found indifferently represented by a single pillar or by groups of
two or three.'5 One of the niches, in this case containing a single

mann, dcschirhtc dcr PhOnhier, p. 205) a
single broad base, of the same form as that of
Fig. 22, supports two smaller bases, with
separate panels, eaeh bearing a triple group of
pillars. Above one panel is the orb and
orescent; above the other the Carthaginian
sign of divinity, a development of the Egyp-
tian Ankh or life symbol.

1 Corpus. Inscrip. Semit. i. 1. No. 138 ; P.
Berger, See. Arch. 3rd s. iii. pp. 209-214 ;

P. et C. iii. p. 308, Fig. 232; cf. Pietseh-
mann, op. eit. p. 200.

* Pietschmann, op. cil. p. 205.

3 See Doughty, Trarelx in Arabia Deserla,

i. p. 121 and p. 187 ; Documents Hpigmphiques
recueUli*dans lc Nord de 1'Arabic, pp. 21-23,
PI. XLV. XXVI. ; Ph. Berger, L'Arabic
aranl Mahomet d'aprrx /cnlnteriptiont, 1885,
p. 19; P. et C. iv. p. 389-391.