DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0083
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
companion scene on the more recently discovered ring. The shrine, in which
the shield is here apparently hung up, and the baetylic column contained in
it, gives the whole an aspect of consecration. At the same time, the attitude
of the female figure leaning on the balustrade, like that of the votary prone
on the shield itself on the other signet, is strongly suggestive of mourning.
The baetylic column, as has been already shown, can be also a sepulchral
monument, not necessarily of a human divinity. We seem to be in the
presence of the tomb of a divine hero, or rather of a warrior God.
We have already ventured to detect one surviving offshoot of the cult
of an armed Mycenaean divinity in that of the Aniyklaean Apollo, common
both to Cyprus and Laconia, and the affiliation with Apollo in another form
is brought out by the persistence of the primitive aniconic image in the case
of Apollo Agyieus. On the other hand, the spear is also an early attribute
of Zeus, and, as already pointed out, the double-axe, or kibrijs, on the ring
from the Mycenae Treasure, brings the male divinity into a close relationship
with the Zeus Labrandeus of Karia, and the Zeus-Minds of the Cretan
Labyrinth. At Knossos, his aspect as a solar deity, so well illustrated
by the gold ring from that site, is brought out by his connexion with
Pasiphae, the Moon Goddess. Elsewhere, as at Gortyna, we see the Cretan
Zeus associated with Europa, the daughter of Telephassa, another form of the
Moon Goddess.
But this identification of the armed divinity of this dual cult, of whom
the Mycenaean body-shield might be regarded as a special attribute, with
the ' Cretan Zeus' of later religious tradition, supplies an interesting com-
mentary on what appears to be the sepulchral shrine aud suspended shield
on our ring. We have here, it may be, a prehistoric representation of the
' Tomb of Zeus.'
§ 20.—Sacral Gateways or Portal Shrines, mostly associated with Sacred Trees.
The sanctity of the portal or doorway in primitive cult is very general,1
and its association with the sacred tree is well brought out by some of
the Pompeian wall-paintings. To this day the traveller in the Caucasus
may see outside the Ossete houses a rude arch or gateway placed beside
the stump which represents the ancestral tree of the household. In
Phrygia we have a series of inscriptions coupling the altar (ficofios) and
doorway {6vpa), as sacral erections. The doorway itself, like the dolmen
in parts of India, can, as much as the baetylic pillar, serve as the tem-
porary dwelling place of the God or Spirit and, in a sense, as his material
image.
In the gold ring (Fig. 55) from the Lower Town of Mycenae, a man in the
usual Mycenaean garb, who perhaps answers to the male attendant of the
Goddess in other religious scenes, is seen reaching out his hand towards the
1 For the trilitbjB of primitive cult we need go no farther than Stonehenge.
companion scene on the more recently discovered ring. The shrine, in which
the shield is here apparently hung up, and the baetylic column contained in
it, gives the whole an aspect of consecration. At the same time, the attitude
of the female figure leaning on the balustrade, like that of the votary prone
on the shield itself on the other signet, is strongly suggestive of mourning.
The baetylic column, as has been already shown, can be also a sepulchral
monument, not necessarily of a human divinity. We seem to be in the
presence of the tomb of a divine hero, or rather of a warrior God.
We have already ventured to detect one surviving offshoot of the cult
of an armed Mycenaean divinity in that of the Aniyklaean Apollo, common
both to Cyprus and Laconia, and the affiliation with Apollo in another form
is brought out by the persistence of the primitive aniconic image in the case
of Apollo Agyieus. On the other hand, the spear is also an early attribute
of Zeus, and, as already pointed out, the double-axe, or kibrijs, on the ring
from the Mycenae Treasure, brings the male divinity into a close relationship
with the Zeus Labrandeus of Karia, and the Zeus-Minds of the Cretan
Labyrinth. At Knossos, his aspect as a solar deity, so well illustrated
by the gold ring from that site, is brought out by his connexion with
Pasiphae, the Moon Goddess. Elsewhere, as at Gortyna, we see the Cretan
Zeus associated with Europa, the daughter of Telephassa, another form of the
Moon Goddess.
But this identification of the armed divinity of this dual cult, of whom
the Mycenaean body-shield might be regarded as a special attribute, with
the ' Cretan Zeus' of later religious tradition, supplies an interesting com-
mentary on what appears to be the sepulchral shrine aud suspended shield
on our ring. We have here, it may be, a prehistoric representation of the
' Tomb of Zeus.'
§ 20.—Sacral Gateways or Portal Shrines, mostly associated with Sacred Trees.
The sanctity of the portal or doorway in primitive cult is very general,1
and its association with the sacred tree is well brought out by some of
the Pompeian wall-paintings. To this day the traveller in the Caucasus
may see outside the Ossete houses a rude arch or gateway placed beside
the stump which represents the ancestral tree of the household. In
Phrygia we have a series of inscriptions coupling the altar (ficofios) and
doorway {6vpa), as sacral erections. The doorway itself, like the dolmen
in parts of India, can, as much as the baetylic pillar, serve as the tem-
porary dwelling place of the God or Spirit and, in a sense, as his material
image.
In the gold ring (Fig. 55) from the Lower Town of Mycenae, a man in the
usual Mycenaean garb, who perhaps answers to the male attendant of the
Goddess in other religious scenes, is seen reaching out his hand towards the
1 For the trilitbjB of primitive cult we need go no farther than Stonehenge.