Evans, Arthur: The ‘Tomb of the Double Axes’ and associated group, and the pillar rooms and ritual vessels of the ‘Little Palace’ at Knossos’ (London, 1914)

AND ASSOCIATED GROUP AT KNOSSOS

r i

The analogy of another religious scene on a signet-ring from Knossos is
here of great value. In that case a female votary appears in the attitude of
adoration before an obelisk at the gate of a sanctuary, above which is seen a small
descending figure of an armed God who seems to have been brought down to the
sacred pillar by due ritual incantation. His rapid descent is in this case indicated
by his long locks of hair flying out on either side,1 and there can be little doubt
that the small figure in the present design, with similar flying locks, must also be
regarded as a descending divinity, here of the female sex. In the ecstatic action
of the dancers we may thus see a visible manifestation of divine possession.

A very remarkable feature of this religious scene remains to be described.
In the field immediately to the left of this central figure appears a human eye,
which may be taken to symbolize the all-seeing presence of the divinity. It
curiously recalls the ' eye of God' so frequent above old Biblical illustrations.

This design derives additional interest from the near parallel that it presents
to the subject of one of the ' miniature frescoes' found in the Palace of Knossos.
In what appears to be a courtyard bounded by paved causeways are seen two
lines of female figures performing some kind of ceremonial dance with much
gcsticulatory action—one hand being generally raised. The background is
occupied by dense crowds of male and female spectators in a state of evident
excitement at the spectacle before them, and there is seen a group of trees, pre-
sumably part of a sacred grove. The attention of both dancers and spectators
is directed towards some central point of attraction to the left of the scene, no
remains of which have been preserved, but which must certainly have been of
a religious nature.

The scene on the ring may be regarded, in conformity with the usual
' short-hand' of glyptic art, as the abbreviated representation of one containing
a. much larger number of dancers—such as is suggested by what has been pre-
served to us of the fresco. On a cornelian gem from the Vapheio tomb2 appears
a single figure of an ecstatic dancer, with one arm raised above her head and the
other apparently holding a flute. She seems to be wearing a skirt composed of
the skin of a sacrificial animal.

a religious scene from the Vapheio Tomb (see enlarged drawing, Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Worship,
P- 78, fig. 52). Religious emblems are frequent in the field of signet-rings with similar subjects—e. g.
°n the last-mentioned example, a combination of the double axe and ankh, on the great signet from
Mycenae, the double axe and solar symbol.

1 In Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Worship,^>.r]\ [J. H. S. 1901, p. 172), I had erroneously taken this
feature for rays emanating from the God's shoulders, like those seen in representations of the Baby-
lonian Samas. But the parallel supplied by a descending divinity on a ' larnax ' from Milatos as
•nterpreted by the light of the figures with flying locks on the Knossian frescoes gave the true
explanation. See Tombs of Knossos (Archaeologia, lix), p. 100.

2 'E<f>t)ii. dpx-, 1889, pi. x, 12; Furtwangler, An/ike Gemmen, pi ii, 45.

c 3