DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0069
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
1G7
be taken to represent the same Goddess. In the case of these Cypriote types
we are led from the associated symbols to seek a celestial divinity who, if on
the Hellenic side of her being she approaches Dione, has certain attributes
in common with the Egyptian Hathor. It is possible that both in Asia
Minor and in prehistoric Greece equally with Mycenaean Cyprus the lion
cult may have passed to the 'Great Mother' of the indigenous religions,
owing to the near relation in which Hathor the ' Great Mother' of Egyptian
cult stood to the Sun-God who was there the special Lord of Lions. In
considering the religious subjects on the Cypro-Mycenaean cylinders we
shall see to what a large extent the cult of Hathor left its impress on that
of the Mycenaean colonists, and the same influence is clearly traceable on
the contemporary ' Hittite' art of Anatolia. It would even appear that the
turret or mural crown common to the Asiatic Goddess in her several forms
is the direct derivative of the ' House of Hor' on the head of Hathor.
Kybele too was a ' Virgo Caelestis,' with sun or moon for her attributes—
Mother according to one tradition of Helios and Selene,1 just as the closely
allied Hellenic Rhea is made the Mother of the Cretan Light-God known to
the Greeks as Zeus. Her title of Basileia as ' Queen of Heaven' recalls the
title of Fanassa apj)lied in Cyprus to Dione or Aphrodite Urania. Finally
the Phrygian Kybele is the special protectress of cities. The Mycenaean
column supports the roof-beams ; in her mural crown the Mother Goddess
supports the city itself. So far at least as Mycenae itself was concerned, no
more appropriate tutelary image could have been found for its citadel gate.
As the special patroness of the Tantalidae Kybele would have been the
natural protectress of the city of Pelops, Atreus and Agamemnon.2
But, as we have seen, the pillar image between the lions also takes a male
form. Moreover, the lion guardians of Egyptian religious art, which, as has
already been shown, in reality supplied the starting-point for this very scheme,
are bound up with the cult of the male solar divinities Ra and Horus.
The alternative substitution of a male and female divinity for the pillar
image of the Lions' Gate scheme recalls a feature in this early aniconic cult to
which attention has already been drawn. It is highly probable that the same
pillar could in fact become by turns the material dwelling-place of either
member of a divine pair. At Paphos, for instance, it could represent either
Aphrodite or Aphroditos. The Semitic religious notions,—which may well
have had a much wider extension—according to which what is practically
the same divine being can present either a male or a female aspect, fitted in
admirably with this ancient pillar cult. But in the case of the Lions' Gate
itself and of one of the engraved seal-stones cited above, there is a feature
which strongly confirms the idea that the column in this case served as the
1 Diodoros, 1. iii. c. 57.
2 Pausanias (iii. 22, 4) mentions a temple
and image of Mother Goddess at Akriae in
Lakonia, said to be the most ancient shrine of
the kind in the Peloponnese, though he adds
that the Magnesians, to the north of Sipylos,
claim that on KoSSfrov irerpa to he the oldest of
all and the work of Broteas the son of Tan-
talos. The special connexion of the cult
with the Tantalidae makes its appearance at
Mycenae the more probable.
1G7
be taken to represent the same Goddess. In the case of these Cypriote types
we are led from the associated symbols to seek a celestial divinity who, if on
the Hellenic side of her being she approaches Dione, has certain attributes
in common with the Egyptian Hathor. It is possible that both in Asia
Minor and in prehistoric Greece equally with Mycenaean Cyprus the lion
cult may have passed to the 'Great Mother' of the indigenous religions,
owing to the near relation in which Hathor the ' Great Mother' of Egyptian
cult stood to the Sun-God who was there the special Lord of Lions. In
considering the religious subjects on the Cypro-Mycenaean cylinders we
shall see to what a large extent the cult of Hathor left its impress on that
of the Mycenaean colonists, and the same influence is clearly traceable on
the contemporary ' Hittite' art of Anatolia. It would even appear that the
turret or mural crown common to the Asiatic Goddess in her several forms
is the direct derivative of the ' House of Hor' on the head of Hathor.
Kybele too was a ' Virgo Caelestis,' with sun or moon for her attributes—
Mother according to one tradition of Helios and Selene,1 just as the closely
allied Hellenic Rhea is made the Mother of the Cretan Light-God known to
the Greeks as Zeus. Her title of Basileia as ' Queen of Heaven' recalls the
title of Fanassa apj)lied in Cyprus to Dione or Aphrodite Urania. Finally
the Phrygian Kybele is the special protectress of cities. The Mycenaean
column supports the roof-beams ; in her mural crown the Mother Goddess
supports the city itself. So far at least as Mycenae itself was concerned, no
more appropriate tutelary image could have been found for its citadel gate.
As the special patroness of the Tantalidae Kybele would have been the
natural protectress of the city of Pelops, Atreus and Agamemnon.2
But, as we have seen, the pillar image between the lions also takes a male
form. Moreover, the lion guardians of Egyptian religious art, which, as has
already been shown, in reality supplied the starting-point for this very scheme,
are bound up with the cult of the male solar divinities Ra and Horus.
The alternative substitution of a male and female divinity for the pillar
image of the Lions' Gate scheme recalls a feature in this early aniconic cult to
which attention has already been drawn. It is highly probable that the same
pillar could in fact become by turns the material dwelling-place of either
member of a divine pair. At Paphos, for instance, it could represent either
Aphrodite or Aphroditos. The Semitic religious notions,—which may well
have had a much wider extension—according to which what is practically
the same divine being can present either a male or a female aspect, fitted in
admirably with this ancient pillar cult. But in the case of the Lions' Gate
itself and of one of the engraved seal-stones cited above, there is a feature
which strongly confirms the idea that the column in this case served as the
1 Diodoros, 1. iii. c. 57.
2 Pausanias (iii. 22, 4) mentions a temple
and image of Mother Goddess at Akriae in
Lakonia, said to be the most ancient shrine of
the kind in the Peloponnese, though he adds
that the Magnesians, to the north of Sipylos,
claim that on KoSSfrov irerpa to he the oldest of
all and the work of Broteas the son of Tan-
talos. The special connexion of the cult
with the Tantalidae makes its appearance at
Mycenae the more probable.