DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0097
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
195
as well as those beneath the metopes, are coloured with the same brown hue
as the pillars on either side of them—in other words, they are of wood-work.
It is evident that this is the earlier form, and that the original Mycenaean
triglyph that supplied the prototype for the Doric, was of the same material
as the guttae below them, which are well known to be. the translation into
stone of wooden rivets. Here, in fact, we have wood-work bars so fitted as
to lock the edges of two alabaster plaques. Had the ' metope ' fields been of
plaster there would have been no occasion for a separate wooden triglyph.
The white horizontal coping immediately above the triglyph and
metopes, on which the bases of the uppermost pairs of columns rest, is
probably of gypsum, like the larger blocks of the plinth below, from which
the columns of the side chapels rise.
The columns themselves, of which there are a pair in the central shrine,
and one in each of the wings, are undoubtedly of wood. Except for some square
pillars made of separate blocks, no trace of stone shafts or capitals was found
in the Palace of Knossos, and their non-discovery is quite in keeping with the
evidence supplied by the Palaces of Tiryns 1 and Mycenae. At Knossos,
however, we have the positive phenomenon that the burnt remains of wooden
shafts of columns resting on the stone disks that formed their bases were
actually found in the Throne Room of the Palace. These columns, three in
number, which supported the roof of the small impluvium, were of cypress
wood, a material which seems to have been commonly used here, as in the
Palace of Odysseus.2
It is possible that those in the wings of the present design, the shafts of
which are coloured black, were of different materials from the central pair,
which are brown, though of a somewhat redder hue than the woodwork of
the front of the building. But the variations in hue—especially noteworthy
in the capital of the right-hand column—where blue, reddish-brown, black
and white succeed one another—show that whatever the underlying material
the surface of the wood was painted over.
Certain black markings on the echinus of the capital above referred to
perhaps indicate the existence of a fluted foliation like that of the half
capital from the ' Treasury of Atreus,' which also recurs in the metopes
already described. Both this foliation, and the inlaid work that goes with it,
are derived from contemporary Egypt, as may be seen from the fragments of
capitals from the Palace of Akhenaten, at Tell-el-Amarna. Another feature
of these capitals is equally Egyptian. This is the small rectangular cushion
which intervenes between the rest of the capital and the slab, suggestive of
a, beam-end upon which the architrave immediately rests.
On the other hand, the shafts of the columns have the downward taper
characteristic of the Mycenaean order. This, it may be noted, is specially
appropriate in a building which ex hypothesi represents the translation of the
primitive stone cells with their Talyot-like supporting pillars into a more
roomy structure, the framework of which is of wood.
1 See Ddrpfeld in Sclilieniaiin's Tiryux, p. 270 wqq.
- Homer, Od. xvii. UO.
o 2
195
as well as those beneath the metopes, are coloured with the same brown hue
as the pillars on either side of them—in other words, they are of wood-work.
It is evident that this is the earlier form, and that the original Mycenaean
triglyph that supplied the prototype for the Doric, was of the same material
as the guttae below them, which are well known to be. the translation into
stone of wooden rivets. Here, in fact, we have wood-work bars so fitted as
to lock the edges of two alabaster plaques. Had the ' metope ' fields been of
plaster there would have been no occasion for a separate wooden triglyph.
The white horizontal coping immediately above the triglyph and
metopes, on which the bases of the uppermost pairs of columns rest, is
probably of gypsum, like the larger blocks of the plinth below, from which
the columns of the side chapels rise.
The columns themselves, of which there are a pair in the central shrine,
and one in each of the wings, are undoubtedly of wood. Except for some square
pillars made of separate blocks, no trace of stone shafts or capitals was found
in the Palace of Knossos, and their non-discovery is quite in keeping with the
evidence supplied by the Palaces of Tiryns 1 and Mycenae. At Knossos,
however, we have the positive phenomenon that the burnt remains of wooden
shafts of columns resting on the stone disks that formed their bases were
actually found in the Throne Room of the Palace. These columns, three in
number, which supported the roof of the small impluvium, were of cypress
wood, a material which seems to have been commonly used here, as in the
Palace of Odysseus.2
It is possible that those in the wings of the present design, the shafts of
which are coloured black, were of different materials from the central pair,
which are brown, though of a somewhat redder hue than the woodwork of
the front of the building. But the variations in hue—especially noteworthy
in the capital of the right-hand column—where blue, reddish-brown, black
and white succeed one another—show that whatever the underlying material
the surface of the wood was painted over.
Certain black markings on the echinus of the capital above referred to
perhaps indicate the existence of a fluted foliation like that of the half
capital from the ' Treasury of Atreus,' which also recurs in the metopes
already described. Both this foliation, and the inlaid work that goes with it,
are derived from contemporary Egypt, as may be seen from the fragments of
capitals from the Palace of Akhenaten, at Tell-el-Amarna. Another feature
of these capitals is equally Egyptian. This is the small rectangular cushion
which intervenes between the rest of the capital and the slab, suggestive of
a, beam-end upon which the architrave immediately rests.
On the other hand, the shafts of the columns have the downward taper
characteristic of the Mycenaean order. This, it may be noted, is specially
appropriate in a building which ex hypothesi represents the translation of the
primitive stone cells with their Talyot-like supporting pillars into a more
roomy structure, the framework of which is of wood.
1 See Ddrpfeld in Sclilieniaiin's Tiryux, p. 270 wqq.
- Homer, Od. xvii. UO.
o 2