DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0087
MYCENAEAN THEE ANT) PTLLAP, CULT.
185
enclosure within the great court of the temenos. Behind this rises a homed
prominence which either represents a part of the usual two-horned cult object
or a single horn having the same sacral import. It supplies an interesting
parallel to the single horn on the capstone of the cellular shrine, to be
described in the next section, the misinterpretation of which as the back of
a throne led Dr Reichel so far astray.1
A female votary stands before the enclosure with the hand raised in the
usual attitude of adoration. But the most significant feature of the design
remains to be described. Behind the doorway and beneath the platform on
which the tree rests is engraved a large crescent which clearly connects this
cult scene with a lunar divinity. The position of this crescent, which appa-
Fig. 58.—Sacked Tube and Enclosure on Steatite Lentoid, Liuoktiko, Ckete (:,!).
rently brings it into relation with a sanctuary below this, suggests the
explanation that the gateway and outer temenos may have led to the mouth
of a cave sacred to the Moon Goddess, above which again was a holy tree.
$ 27.—The Dolmen Shrines of Primitive Cult and Dace Shrines of Mycenae.
It is possible that some of the objects described in the preceding section
as sacral doorways or portal shrines really represent slabs supported by four
pillars, and that we have here to do with holy ' table-stones,' or to adopt the
well-known Celtic word for this religious structure, with ' dolmens.' The
double pillars on either side of some of the examples given might bear out
1 See below p. 189.
185
enclosure within the great court of the temenos. Behind this rises a homed
prominence which either represents a part of the usual two-horned cult object
or a single horn having the same sacral import. It supplies an interesting
parallel to the single horn on the capstone of the cellular shrine, to be
described in the next section, the misinterpretation of which as the back of
a throne led Dr Reichel so far astray.1
A female votary stands before the enclosure with the hand raised in the
usual attitude of adoration. But the most significant feature of the design
remains to be described. Behind the doorway and beneath the platform on
which the tree rests is engraved a large crescent which clearly connects this
cult scene with a lunar divinity. The position of this crescent, which appa-
Fig. 58.—Sacked Tube and Enclosure on Steatite Lentoid, Liuoktiko, Ckete (:,!).
rently brings it into relation with a sanctuary below this, suggests the
explanation that the gateway and outer temenos may have led to the mouth
of a cave sacred to the Moon Goddess, above which again was a holy tree.
$ 27.—The Dolmen Shrines of Primitive Cult and Dace Shrines of Mycenae.
It is possible that some of the objects described in the preceding section
as sacral doorways or portal shrines really represent slabs supported by four
pillars, and that we have here to do with holy ' table-stones,' or to adopt the
well-known Celtic word for this religious structure, with ' dolmens.' The
double pillars on either side of some of the examples given might bear out
1 See below p. 189.