DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0055
mycenaean tree and pillar cult.
153
the Tat pillar between two symmetrically grouped uraeus snakes, and a
scarab1 with this design was found in one of the group of Mycenaean graves
at Ialysos, from another of which a lentoid gem representing the column
between two lions was brought to light. At Tel-el-Amarna, where Egyptian
and Mycenaean culture find more than one point of contact, scarabs with
similar designs of the Tat aud Uraei also occurred.
It is further to be noted that the distribution of the guardian animals
as regards the trees and foliate pillars on the one hand and the architectural
columns and bases on the other seems to follow a division already percep-
tible among their Egyptian prototypes. Setting aside the mythical monsters
which to a certain extent at all events seem common to both groups we
find the heraldic grouping of oxen and goats confined to the trees or tree
pillars. The lions alone are associated with the structural columns and altar
bases just as in Egyptian religious art we find them exclusively acting as
supporters of the symbol of the sun on the horizon.
The general conclusion to which we are led is that the animals sym-
metrically posed and paired before trees and pillars in these Mycenaean
schemes represent a tradition borrowed from Egyptian sources. The
conventional scheme had certain religious associations and was therefore
adopted for animals performing sacral functions as guardians of holy trees
and baetylic columns. It has been already noted that several of the
monstrous forms represented in the Mycenaean series like the Sphinx, the
Kriosphinx, and the Griffin are themselves Egyptian creations and of their
nature divine. In other cases the sacred character of the animal is indicated
by the conventional pose of ancient tradition.
j5 20.—Sacred Trees and Foliated Pillars with lleraldieallij Posed Animals.
The sacred tree, when it occurs on Mvcenaean designs of the heraldic
class at present under consideration, is generally more or less conventionalised
in form and often shades off into the foliated pillar. A somewhat
naturalistic example (Fig. 30) may be cited from a lentoid gem found in a
tomb of the Lower Town of Mycenae in 1895.- The tree here rises from a
kind of base and on either side with their heads turned towards it are two
wild goats or agrimia back to back, who in each case rest their fore feet
on a structure rising in two high steps.
In Fig. 31 from a lentoid gem found at Palaeokastro on the easternmost
point of Crete3 we see a single wild goat in a similar heraldic attitude
before a tree of conventional type with side sprays aud trefoil crest. Behind
the agrimi is a smaller animal with the feet ami hindquarters of an ape
which seems to be in the act of springing on it. It suggests the
Cynocephalus that appears in the field of some Babylonian cylinders. To the
1 Myk. Vaten, Taf. E, 2.
- A banded agate.
1 obtained it on
153
the Tat pillar between two symmetrically grouped uraeus snakes, and a
scarab1 with this design was found in one of the group of Mycenaean graves
at Ialysos, from another of which a lentoid gem representing the column
between two lions was brought to light. At Tel-el-Amarna, where Egyptian
and Mycenaean culture find more than one point of contact, scarabs with
similar designs of the Tat aud Uraei also occurred.
It is further to be noted that the distribution of the guardian animals
as regards the trees and foliate pillars on the one hand and the architectural
columns and bases on the other seems to follow a division already percep-
tible among their Egyptian prototypes. Setting aside the mythical monsters
which to a certain extent at all events seem common to both groups we
find the heraldic grouping of oxen and goats confined to the trees or tree
pillars. The lions alone are associated with the structural columns and altar
bases just as in Egyptian religious art we find them exclusively acting as
supporters of the symbol of the sun on the horizon.
The general conclusion to which we are led is that the animals sym-
metrically posed and paired before trees and pillars in these Mycenaean
schemes represent a tradition borrowed from Egyptian sources. The
conventional scheme had certain religious associations and was therefore
adopted for animals performing sacral functions as guardians of holy trees
and baetylic columns. It has been already noted that several of the
monstrous forms represented in the Mycenaean series like the Sphinx, the
Kriosphinx, and the Griffin are themselves Egyptian creations and of their
nature divine. In other cases the sacred character of the animal is indicated
by the conventional pose of ancient tradition.
j5 20.—Sacred Trees and Foliated Pillars with lleraldieallij Posed Animals.
The sacred tree, when it occurs on Mvcenaean designs of the heraldic
class at present under consideration, is generally more or less conventionalised
in form and often shades off into the foliated pillar. A somewhat
naturalistic example (Fig. 30) may be cited from a lentoid gem found in a
tomb of the Lower Town of Mycenae in 1895.- The tree here rises from a
kind of base and on either side with their heads turned towards it are two
wild goats or agrimia back to back, who in each case rest their fore feet
on a structure rising in two high steps.
In Fig. 31 from a lentoid gem found at Palaeokastro on the easternmost
point of Crete3 we see a single wild goat in a similar heraldic attitude
before a tree of conventional type with side sprays aud trefoil crest. Behind
the agrimi is a smaller animal with the feet ami hindquarters of an ape
which seems to be in the act of springing on it. It suggests the
Cynocephalus that appears in the field of some Babylonian cylinders. To the
1 Myk. Vaten, Taf. E, 2.
- A banded agate.
1 obtained it on