Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

M. M. Ill: MINOAN FRESCO: WALL PAINTINGS, ETC. 549

Their lower ends, too, are sawn off as if for attachment by means of a collar
to a metal shaft.1 The stem of the arrow is ornamented with grooves, in
some of which is a red inlaying material and traces of this are also seen
between the plumes. These are artificially cut in a series of crested waves,
outlined in relief against the reel background.

The curious method of notching the plumes that we see on these
votive arrows seems to have had a wider religious association in Minoan
Art. It is also applied to the wings of Sphinxes and Griffins. It occurs,
for example, on the wings of a Griffin (Fig. 400) 2 in the minature style that

took its rise in the transitional
epoch, about the close of the
Middle or the beginning of
the Late Minoan Age. In
these cases it is often coupled
with an asterisk mark—itself
a stellar symbol — which also
appears in place of the simple
star-cross on the Cow of
Hathor. A part of a wing,
belonging apparently to a
large figure of a Sphinx or
Griffin found in the fresco
heap to the North of the Palace at Knossos is given in Fig. 399, b 3 with
this asterisk mark between the notched plumage, and here we see a common
variant of this design in which wavelets appear between the wave-like
notches of the plumes. On a remarkable Sphinx's head found at Mycenae,
executed in the round in painted stucco,4 similar asterisks, in this case of
a ruddy hue, appear on the chin, cheeks, and forehead. It is quite possible
that the same symbolic figure was depicted on the surface of the red inlay of
which only traces now remain between the notches of the votive arrow-
plumes of the Knossian Shrine.

Perhaps the best indication ot the religious character of the ' notched
plume' motive is supplied by its adoption as a recognized ornament of the
skirts of the Goddess herself or of her votaries. Thus it is seen in a simple
form on the flounces of the bronze figurine described above,5 and on the

1 See Knossos, Report, 1903, p. 61, Fig. 40. 4 Tsuntas, 'E<£. 'Apx-> 1902, p. 1 seqq., and

2 From the fresco heaps above the N.W. PI. i.

Portico at Knossos. 5 See p. 507. To be more fully illustrated

3 Probably of Early L. M. I date. in Vol. II.

The

Notched
Plume
Decora-
tion.

On

Wings of
Sphinxes
and

Griffins.

Com-
bined
with

Asterisk
—a
Stellar
Symbol.

Fig. 400. Fragment of'Miniature'Fresco,
Knossos, showing Griffin with Notched
Plumes.

Asterisk
on Stucco
Face of
Sphinx.

Notched
Plume
Motive on
Skirts of
Goddess.