DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8757#0109
82
THE PILLAR ROOMS AND RITUAL VESSELS
opening on its upper surface for pouring in liquids, and a smaller one below by
which they can slowly escape. The larger hole, in this case, is just behind the
crown of the head, and the smaller in the lower lip (see section, fig. 88, c), as is
usually the case with rhytons in the form of animals' heads.
We may infer from these features that this type of vessel was designed for
libations. The classical term ' rhyton' belongs, strictly speaking, to a late class
of vases terminating in animals' heads, made use of at banquets. Owing to the
analogy in form, due to the perforation at the animal's mouth, the word has been
conveniently applied to this Minoan class,1 the religious intention of which can
hardly be doubted. On the evolution of this type on Cretan soil more will be
said below.
The present example was formed out of two pieces
of steatite. The bull's head and neck were wrought out
of a solid mass, and set by means of a reveal round the
edge into a flat plate forming the base (see section,
fig. 88). On the outer surface of this, the artist who
executed the work had made—with what object it is
difficult to say, perhaps for his own guidance in the work
—a graffito sketch of a bull's head (fig. 89). It is interest-
ing as showing how the horns were intended by him to
spring from the head, and the indication has been
made use of in Monsieur Gillieron's restored drawing (fig. 90).
Round the nostrils of the animal is a curving inlaid band, consisting of white
shell, inserted in a shallow groove with a rectangular section. The shell used
is evidently a large bivalve, and seems to be the tridacna squamosa, which was
already imported into Crete from the Persian Gulf at this period.
But the most striking feature of this head was the perfectly preserved right
eye. The lens of this consisted of rock crystal, on the slightly hollowed lower
surface of which are painted the pupil and iris. The pupil is a brilliant scarlet,
the iris black, the rest of the cornea white. The crystal setting is inserted in a
border of red stone resembling jasper, which surrounds the white field of the
eye like the rims of bloodshot eyelids. To add to the effect, the crystal lens of
the eye both illuminates and magnifies the bright red pupil, and imparts to
the whole an almost startling impression of fiery life.
Long hairs are engraved falling about the forehead, brows, and cheeks of
the animal, showing that he was of a shaggy breed. Certain incurved, angular
designs, moreover, on the forehead, the sides of the head, and neck are evidently
intended to indicate coloured patches, resembling those seen on some of the
1 e.g. by Dr. Karo, Minoische Rhyta, Jahrbuch d. k. d. Arch. Inst., 1911, pp. 250 seqq.
THE PILLAR ROOMS AND RITUAL VESSELS
opening on its upper surface for pouring in liquids, and a smaller one below by
which they can slowly escape. The larger hole, in this case, is just behind the
crown of the head, and the smaller in the lower lip (see section, fig. 88, c), as is
usually the case with rhytons in the form of animals' heads.
We may infer from these features that this type of vessel was designed for
libations. The classical term ' rhyton' belongs, strictly speaking, to a late class
of vases terminating in animals' heads, made use of at banquets. Owing to the
analogy in form, due to the perforation at the animal's mouth, the word has been
conveniently applied to this Minoan class,1 the religious intention of which can
hardly be doubted. On the evolution of this type on Cretan soil more will be
said below.
The present example was formed out of two pieces
of steatite. The bull's head and neck were wrought out
of a solid mass, and set by means of a reveal round the
edge into a flat plate forming the base (see section,
fig. 88). On the outer surface of this, the artist who
executed the work had made—with what object it is
difficult to say, perhaps for his own guidance in the work
—a graffito sketch of a bull's head (fig. 89). It is interest-
ing as showing how the horns were intended by him to
spring from the head, and the indication has been
made use of in Monsieur Gillieron's restored drawing (fig. 90).
Round the nostrils of the animal is a curving inlaid band, consisting of white
shell, inserted in a shallow groove with a rectangular section. The shell used
is evidently a large bivalve, and seems to be the tridacna squamosa, which was
already imported into Crete from the Persian Gulf at this period.
But the most striking feature of this head was the perfectly preserved right
eye. The lens of this consisted of rock crystal, on the slightly hollowed lower
surface of which are painted the pupil and iris. The pupil is a brilliant scarlet,
the iris black, the rest of the cornea white. The crystal setting is inserted in a
border of red stone resembling jasper, which surrounds the white field of the
eye like the rims of bloodshot eyelids. To add to the effect, the crystal lens of
the eye both illuminates and magnifies the bright red pupil, and imparts to
the whole an almost startling impression of fiery life.
Long hairs are engraved falling about the forehead, brows, and cheeks of
the animal, showing that he was of a shaggy breed. Certain incurved, angular
designs, moreover, on the forehead, the sides of the head, and neck are evidently
intended to indicate coloured patches, resembling those seen on some of the
1 e.g. by Dr. Karo, Minoische Rhyta, Jahrbuch d. k. d. Arch. Inst., 1911, pp. 250 seqq.