DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0062
IGO
ARTHUR J. EVANS
reduplicated form, is, in fact., the Egyptian Kriosphinx, here, however, fitted
with wings according to tlie Mycenaean practice. At Karnak huge
Kriosphinxcs—with the head of a ram and the body of a lion—guard the
avenue of the Theban lunar God Khonsu. An analogous design, representing
a double-bodied lion, with a single head, his forelegs resting on a similar
base, occurs on another lentoid from Mycenae (Fig. 38.)1
On rings and gems, indeed, the more usual guardians of the sacred
pillar are lions. A gold signet-ring from Mycenae (Fig. 39)2 shows a pillar
with a somewhat broad entablature to which two lions are attached by
chains round their necks. The animals look back at the column, and two
objects of uncertain character attached to the end of the entablature on either
side, hang down in front of their noses. These objects, which in their general
outline somewhat resemble the two alabaster knots found in the fourth
Acropolis grave at Mycenae,3 have perhaps a sacral character, for, on the
Heraeum gem,4 two similar are seen on either side of a bull's head, above
which is the symbolic double axe.
A cornelian lentoid from grave 33 of the Cemetery of Ialysos6
shows a rude and straggling design of a column with two lion supporters
looking outwards. Another hitherto unpublished variant of the type is
supplied by a brown cornelian lentoid gem (Fig. 40) obtained by me at
Zero in Eastern Crete. Two lions are here symmetrically seated back to
1 From tomb 8 of the lower town of My-
cenae, Tsuntas, 'Etp. 'Apx- 1888, PI. X. 2, and
p. 175 ; P. et C. vi. PI. XVI. 20 ; Furtw.
Ant. Oemrn. PI. III. 23.
1 Formerly in the Tyazkiewicz Collection,
at present in mv own. Frdhner, Coll. Tyazk.,
PI. I. 3.
3 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 242, Fig. 352.
4 See above p. 109.
« B. M. Gem Cat. PI. A. 100; Curtius,
Wappengebrauch uml Wappenstil, p. Ill;
Furtw. u. Loschke, Myl: Vas. PI. ■ E. 6, pp.
1.5 and 75 ; Furtw. Ant. Gemm. PI. III. 20,
ARTHUR J. EVANS
reduplicated form, is, in fact., the Egyptian Kriosphinx, here, however, fitted
with wings according to tlie Mycenaean practice. At Karnak huge
Kriosphinxcs—with the head of a ram and the body of a lion—guard the
avenue of the Theban lunar God Khonsu. An analogous design, representing
a double-bodied lion, with a single head, his forelegs resting on a similar
base, occurs on another lentoid from Mycenae (Fig. 38.)1
On rings and gems, indeed, the more usual guardians of the sacred
pillar are lions. A gold signet-ring from Mycenae (Fig. 39)2 shows a pillar
with a somewhat broad entablature to which two lions are attached by
chains round their necks. The animals look back at the column, and two
objects of uncertain character attached to the end of the entablature on either
side, hang down in front of their noses. These objects, which in their general
outline somewhat resemble the two alabaster knots found in the fourth
Acropolis grave at Mycenae,3 have perhaps a sacral character, for, on the
Heraeum gem,4 two similar are seen on either side of a bull's head, above
which is the symbolic double axe.
A cornelian lentoid from grave 33 of the Cemetery of Ialysos6
shows a rude and straggling design of a column with two lion supporters
looking outwards. Another hitherto unpublished variant of the type is
supplied by a brown cornelian lentoid gem (Fig. 40) obtained by me at
Zero in Eastern Crete. Two lions are here symmetrically seated back to
1 From tomb 8 of the lower town of My-
cenae, Tsuntas, 'Etp. 'Apx- 1888, PI. X. 2, and
p. 175 ; P. et C. vi. PI. XVI. 20 ; Furtw.
Ant. Oemrn. PI. III. 23.
1 Formerly in the Tyazkiewicz Collection,
at present in mv own. Frdhner, Coll. Tyazk.,
PI. I. 3.
3 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 242, Fig. 352.
4 See above p. 109.
« B. M. Gem Cat. PI. A. 100; Curtius,
Wappengebrauch uml Wappenstil, p. Ill;
Furtw. u. Loschke, Myl: Vas. PI. ■ E. 6, pp.
1.5 and 75 ; Furtw. Ant. Gemm. PI. III. 20,