DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0106
204
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
triangular amulet and worn round the neck. An augury of pebbles, which
were shuffled about under the Dervish's palms over a hollowed stone, having
turned out propitious,1 we now proceeded to the sacrifice. This took place
outside the sepulchral enclosure, where the Priest of the Stone was presently
ready with a young ram.2 My Albanian guide cut its throat, and I was now
instructed to dip my right hand little finger in the blood and to touch my
forehead with it.
The sacrifice completed, we made our way down again to the shrine,
while peals of thunder rolled through the glen from the Black Mountain
above. It was now necessary to divest one's self of an article of clothing for
the Dervish to wrap round the sacred pillar, where it remained all night.
Due offerings of candles were made, which, as evening drew on, were lit on
the sunken hearth beside the stone. We were given three barley corns to
eat, and a share in the slaughtered ram, of which the rest was taken by the
priest, was set apart for our supper in the adjoining antechamber. Here
beneath the same roof with the stone, and within sight of it through
the open doorway, we were bidden to pass the night, so that the occult
influences due to its spiritual possession might shape our dreams as in the
days of the patriarchs.
Arthur J. Evans.
1 The hands were separated, still palms
downwards, and the numbers of the pebbles
under the right and left hand respectively
were then counted.
2 Near him was a kind of low gallows from
which was suspended a three-pointed flesh -
hook for hanging up the meat. This flesh-
hook had to be touched three times with the
tip of the right hand little finger.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.
The views expressed in the present study with regard to the character of Mycenaean
worship, and such external features as the baetylic pillars within the shrines and the 'horns
of consecration,' were first put forth by] nie in a paper on ' Pillar and Tree Worship
in Mycenaean Greece,' read in the Anthropological Section of the British Association at
Liverpool in 1896. A short abstract of this was published in the Annual Report of the
Association. In November 1899, the part specially affecting Dr. Reichel's theory of the
' Thronkultus,' was read to the Oxford Philological Society. It had been my original
intention to incorporate the present study in a work, in course of preparation by me, on
the Mycenaean gems and signets, but the fresh evidence supplied by the Cretan discoveries
has induced me to put it forth in a separate form. This seemed the more desirable since
the most recently expressed views on the subject, as for instance those contained in
Dr. H. von Fritze's essay 'Die Myl.enischen Goldringe und Hire Bedeutung fOr das
Sacralwesen (Strata Ilelhujiana, p. 73 seqi/.), though in certain respects supplying a
welcome corrective to Dr. Reichel's system, still, as I venture to think, betray a very
imperfect recognition of some of the most essential features of the cult. So far, on the other
hand, as my own views are confirmatory of those expressed by Dr. von Fritze in the paper
above cited, by Dr. Wolters in his remarks on the Knossian fresco, and again by Dr. Furt-
wangler in his monumental work on Ancient Gems, they have at least the value of
having been independently arrived at.
Editorial Note.—Owing to the author's absence abroad, this article has not received
final revision at his hands
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
triangular amulet and worn round the neck. An augury of pebbles, which
were shuffled about under the Dervish's palms over a hollowed stone, having
turned out propitious,1 we now proceeded to the sacrifice. This took place
outside the sepulchral enclosure, where the Priest of the Stone was presently
ready with a young ram.2 My Albanian guide cut its throat, and I was now
instructed to dip my right hand little finger in the blood and to touch my
forehead with it.
The sacrifice completed, we made our way down again to the shrine,
while peals of thunder rolled through the glen from the Black Mountain
above. It was now necessary to divest one's self of an article of clothing for
the Dervish to wrap round the sacred pillar, where it remained all night.
Due offerings of candles were made, which, as evening drew on, were lit on
the sunken hearth beside the stone. We were given three barley corns to
eat, and a share in the slaughtered ram, of which the rest was taken by the
priest, was set apart for our supper in the adjoining antechamber. Here
beneath the same roof with the stone, and within sight of it through
the open doorway, we were bidden to pass the night, so that the occult
influences due to its spiritual possession might shape our dreams as in the
days of the patriarchs.
Arthur J. Evans.
1 The hands were separated, still palms
downwards, and the numbers of the pebbles
under the right and left hand respectively
were then counted.
2 Near him was a kind of low gallows from
which was suspended a three-pointed flesh -
hook for hanging up the meat. This flesh-
hook had to be touched three times with the
tip of the right hand little finger.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.
The views expressed in the present study with regard to the character of Mycenaean
worship, and such external features as the baetylic pillars within the shrines and the 'horns
of consecration,' were first put forth by] nie in a paper on ' Pillar and Tree Worship
in Mycenaean Greece,' read in the Anthropological Section of the British Association at
Liverpool in 1896. A short abstract of this was published in the Annual Report of the
Association. In November 1899, the part specially affecting Dr. Reichel's theory of the
' Thronkultus,' was read to the Oxford Philological Society. It had been my original
intention to incorporate the present study in a work, in course of preparation by me, on
the Mycenaean gems and signets, but the fresh evidence supplied by the Cretan discoveries
has induced me to put it forth in a separate form. This seemed the more desirable since
the most recently expressed views on the subject, as for instance those contained in
Dr. H. von Fritze's essay 'Die Myl.enischen Goldringe und Hire Bedeutung fOr das
Sacralwesen (Strata Ilelhujiana, p. 73 seqi/.), though in certain respects supplying a
welcome corrective to Dr. Reichel's system, still, as I venture to think, betray a very
imperfect recognition of some of the most essential features of the cult. So far, on the other
hand, as my own views are confirmatory of those expressed by Dr. von Fritze in the paper
above cited, by Dr. Wolters in his remarks on the Knossian fresco, and again by Dr. Furt-
wangler in his monumental work on Ancient Gems, they have at least the value of
having been independently arrived at.
Editorial Note.—Owing to the author's absence abroad, this article has not received
final revision at his hands