DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0058
156
ARTHUR J. EVANS
and is undoubtedly a feature taken over from the hawk of the Egyptian
Sun-God Horus. The Sphinx itself belongs, of course, to the same solar
cycle, though in Egypt it is rarely of the female sex. Elsewhere we. shall
see the Sphinx, like the Griffin, as a guardian of the architectural column.
A very similar type of foliated pillar with two young bulls or oxen
symmetrically attached on either side, occurs on another gold signet ring
from Mycenae.1 A close parallel, again, to this is presented by a beautifully
engraved ring cut out of a single piece of rock crystal which was found some
years since at Mycenae (Fig. 34).'3 Two couchant bulls with their heads
turned back are tethered to the foliate pillar in the same way as in the
preceding example, the only difference being that two additional sprays of
the same conventional kind rise from behind their backs. On a lentoid
bead seal3 two animals, one a bull and the other a wild goat, are symmetri-
cally ranged beside a pair of conventional tree-pillars with spiral shafts and
tri-foliate sprays.
$ 21.—Architectural Columns with Animal Suptporlers: the Lions Gale Type.
•
The most conspicuous example of purely architectural columns with animal
supporters is the tympanum relief of the Lions' Gate at Mycenae (Fig. 35).
But in this case the position of the column, as if fulfilling an architectural,
and at the same time a decorative purpose, has to a great extent diverted
archaelogical students from its true religious significance.4 The lions
1 From Tomb 25 of the Lower Town.
Tsuntaa, 'Ecf>. 'APX. 1889, PI. X. 43, and pp.
143 and 179. Tsuntas describes the animals
as horses, Suo iiriroi {iypioi) ; but short horns are
clearly discernible.
- In my own collection ; hitherto unpub-
lished!
3 Of agate, from Tomb 10 of the Lower
Town Mycenae. Tsuntas, 'E<p. 'Apx- 1888,
PI. X. 7 and p. 140; Furtwaugler, Ant.
Gunmen, iii. 27.
4 M. Salomon Reinach, however, has shown
himself alive to its true significance, and in
his 'Mirage Orientale' [Anthropologic, iv.
ARTHUR J. EVANS
and is undoubtedly a feature taken over from the hawk of the Egyptian
Sun-God Horus. The Sphinx itself belongs, of course, to the same solar
cycle, though in Egypt it is rarely of the female sex. Elsewhere we. shall
see the Sphinx, like the Griffin, as a guardian of the architectural column.
A very similar type of foliated pillar with two young bulls or oxen
symmetrically attached on either side, occurs on another gold signet ring
from Mycenae.1 A close parallel, again, to this is presented by a beautifully
engraved ring cut out of a single piece of rock crystal which was found some
years since at Mycenae (Fig. 34).'3 Two couchant bulls with their heads
turned back are tethered to the foliate pillar in the same way as in the
preceding example, the only difference being that two additional sprays of
the same conventional kind rise from behind their backs. On a lentoid
bead seal3 two animals, one a bull and the other a wild goat, are symmetri-
cally ranged beside a pair of conventional tree-pillars with spiral shafts and
tri-foliate sprays.
$ 21.—Architectural Columns with Animal Suptporlers: the Lions Gale Type.
•
The most conspicuous example of purely architectural columns with animal
supporters is the tympanum relief of the Lions' Gate at Mycenae (Fig. 35).
But in this case the position of the column, as if fulfilling an architectural,
and at the same time a decorative purpose, has to a great extent diverted
archaelogical students from its true religious significance.4 The lions
1 From Tomb 25 of the Lower Town.
Tsuntaa, 'Ecf>. 'APX. 1889, PI. X. 43, and pp.
143 and 179. Tsuntas describes the animals
as horses, Suo iiriroi {iypioi) ; but short horns are
clearly discernible.
- In my own collection ; hitherto unpub-
lished!
3 Of agate, from Tomb 10 of the Lower
Town Mycenae. Tsuntas, 'E<p. 'Apx- 1888,
PI. X. 7 and p. 140; Furtwaugler, Ant.
Gunmen, iii. 27.
4 M. Salomon Reinach, however, has shown
himself alive to its true significance, and in
his 'Mirage Orientale' [Anthropologic, iv.