DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0082
Knossos Excavations, 1903.
7i
taken to be the flying fish. Of these, sufficient remains were found to restore
two specimens : the foremost of the two, as is shown in Fig. 47, has the body
and most of the upper fin preserved. Of the second example only the
tail and part of a ' wing' were forthcoming, but as it was from the same
mould as the other it could be completed with certainty. The ground
colour of these is buff with brown markings. The fish, which are flat
below, were probably set in coloured plaster imitating the sea waves. We
have here, in fact, an interesting parallel to the wall-painting found in the
Pillar House of Phylakopi of the flying fish darting amidst the sea spray.
The ' swallow-fish ' (^eXiSovoyjrapi), as it is known to the modern Greeks, is
also a favourite subject of Mindan gems.
Exquisite as are these various productions of the Palace fabric of
faience it will probably be admitted that, as regards the ideal presentment
of natural forms, the art reaches its highest levels in certain small reliefs
exhibiting groups of cows and goats suckling their young. These scenes
are in each case repeated by a series of examples taken from a single
mould, and their recurrence, as well as the parallelism of the two subjects,
makes it natural to detect in them a direct reference to the cult of the
Mother Goddess of Mindan Crete.
Of these, the group of the cow and calf, in fact, presents essentially the
same type as the Cow and Calf of Hathor and Isis. This was afterwards
a favourite subject of Phoenician art, while in Classical Greece, as on the
coins of Karystos, we see it attached to the service of Hera.1 The animals
are here exhibited as standing on a low base, divided into rectangular com-
partments alternately light and dark, which gives the whole an architectonic
aspect. The ground colour of both cow and calf is a pale buff on which
are sepia spots, and a curious feature of the plaques, repeated in the parallel
type showing the wild goats, is that their upper margin follows the line of the
animals' bodies. It seems probable, therefore, that they were applied to a
backing of coloured plaster. What appear to have been the horns were in
both cases executed in separate pieces in the round. The cow, which is of
somewhat elongated proportions, turns back her head to lick the calf's hind-
quarters. The suckling calf is itself delineated in a manner which reveals an
extraordinary observation of nature. In beauty of modelling and in living
1 It is also common on Minoan gems, and it is possible (as seems certainly the case on some
of the bovine designs of the Eretrian dies) that these Karyslian coin-types actually represent a
revival of designs taken from ' Mycenaean' gem engravings.
7i
taken to be the flying fish. Of these, sufficient remains were found to restore
two specimens : the foremost of the two, as is shown in Fig. 47, has the body
and most of the upper fin preserved. Of the second example only the
tail and part of a ' wing' were forthcoming, but as it was from the same
mould as the other it could be completed with certainty. The ground
colour of these is buff with brown markings. The fish, which are flat
below, were probably set in coloured plaster imitating the sea waves. We
have here, in fact, an interesting parallel to the wall-painting found in the
Pillar House of Phylakopi of the flying fish darting amidst the sea spray.
The ' swallow-fish ' (^eXiSovoyjrapi), as it is known to the modern Greeks, is
also a favourite subject of Mindan gems.
Exquisite as are these various productions of the Palace fabric of
faience it will probably be admitted that, as regards the ideal presentment
of natural forms, the art reaches its highest levels in certain small reliefs
exhibiting groups of cows and goats suckling their young. These scenes
are in each case repeated by a series of examples taken from a single
mould, and their recurrence, as well as the parallelism of the two subjects,
makes it natural to detect in them a direct reference to the cult of the
Mother Goddess of Mindan Crete.
Of these, the group of the cow and calf, in fact, presents essentially the
same type as the Cow and Calf of Hathor and Isis. This was afterwards
a favourite subject of Phoenician art, while in Classical Greece, as on the
coins of Karystos, we see it attached to the service of Hera.1 The animals
are here exhibited as standing on a low base, divided into rectangular com-
partments alternately light and dark, which gives the whole an architectonic
aspect. The ground colour of both cow and calf is a pale buff on which
are sepia spots, and a curious feature of the plaques, repeated in the parallel
type showing the wild goats, is that their upper margin follows the line of the
animals' bodies. It seems probable, therefore, that they were applied to a
backing of coloured plaster. What appear to have been the horns were in
both cases executed in separate pieces in the round. The cow, which is of
somewhat elongated proportions, turns back her head to lick the calf's hind-
quarters. The suckling calf is itself delineated in a manner which reveals an
extraordinary observation of nature. In beauty of modelling and in living
1 It is also common on Minoan gems, and it is possible (as seems certainly the case on some
of the bovine designs of the Eretrian dies) that these Karyslian coin-types actually represent a
revival of designs taken from ' Mycenaean' gem engravings.