DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0484
444
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Axes in-
serted in
Columns.
On each side of the capital appear pairs of white objects with curved ends,
which, though sketchily indicated, in the fluid style of this fresco technique,
unquestionably represent the double axes of Minoan worship, stuck into
the woodwork of the sacred columns. This recalls a curious cult practice
noted in the ' Dictaean Cave'. In the inmost cavern shrine explored by
Dr. Hogarth, votive bronze axes and other implements had been inserted
in the crevices of the natural pillars of stalagmite.
Fig. 320. Window Openings of Sanctuary Building with Double Axes inserted
in Posts on a Fragment of Painted Stucco found at Mycenae.
What, however, is of special interest in connexion with the double axes
embedded in the wooden columns of the Palace Sanctuary is the recurrence
of this ritual arrangement on a painted plaster fragment belonging to the
earliest painted decoration of the Palace at Mycenae and clearly the work of
Compari- a more or less contemporary Cretan artist. Fat female figures are seen
Myctnae. looking out from what appear to be the openings of a double window, on
both sides of the upright middle bar of wdiich, and on the inner side of the
left post are visible, just under the cross-beam, double axes stuck in the
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Axes in-
serted in
Columns.
On each side of the capital appear pairs of white objects with curved ends,
which, though sketchily indicated, in the fluid style of this fresco technique,
unquestionably represent the double axes of Minoan worship, stuck into
the woodwork of the sacred columns. This recalls a curious cult practice
noted in the ' Dictaean Cave'. In the inmost cavern shrine explored by
Dr. Hogarth, votive bronze axes and other implements had been inserted
in the crevices of the natural pillars of stalagmite.
Fig. 320. Window Openings of Sanctuary Building with Double Axes inserted
in Posts on a Fragment of Painted Stucco found at Mycenae.
What, however, is of special interest in connexion with the double axes
embedded in the wooden columns of the Palace Sanctuary is the recurrence
of this ritual arrangement on a painted plaster fragment belonging to the
earliest painted decoration of the Palace at Mycenae and clearly the work of
Compari- a more or less contemporary Cretan artist. Fat female figures are seen
Myctnae. looking out from what appear to be the openings of a double window, on
both sides of the upright middle bar of wdiich, and on the inner side of the
left post are visible, just under the cross-beam, double axes stuck in the