DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0675
M. M. Ill : LINEAR SCRIPT A AND ITS SACRAL USAGE 629
The triple receptacle indicated by the remains of the larger Table Triple
corresponds with the triple aspect of the cult of this Cave Sanctuary, as ^de for
to which remarkable evidence is supplied by a votive bronze plate de- Libations,
scribed below. The custom of offering threefold libation itself £oes back
to the earliest religious stratum of Greece.1 According to the old Arcadian
rite recorded in the Odyssey the dead before the falls of Styx were appeased
by a triple libation :
rrpcoTa fieXiKpr/Tcp, /leTeneiTa Se f]8ei otvcp,
\ ' T A» r! CN 9
TO TpiTOV aVU VOOLTl."
The chthonic aspects of the Minoan cult, to which attention has already
been called, tend to strengthen these comparisons, and the offering of the
/ I"
it..
it--H
Fig. 467. Inscription on Psychro Libation Table.
/xeXiKpriTa would have been specially appropriate in the Cave where, accord-
ing to the legend, the infant Zeus was fed by the Nymphs ' with mingled milk
and honey \3
A small fragment showing traces of three characters brought to light in inscrip
the same sacrificial deposit by Monsieur J. Demargne of the French School Libatio
at Athens in 1897, at a spot a little South of that in which the larger part of Table,
the Libation Table occurred, and a cast of it kindly supplied by the finder,
shows that it fitted on to its upper margin, with which it is incorporated
in the photographic Figure 466. It appears, therefore, that there were
originally two lines of inscription, both running from left to right, and
arranged from the same point of view, possibly an indication that the table
was set against the Cavern wall. The characters in their essential forms are
reproduced in Fig. 467. 1, 6, and 7 of the lower line can be completed with
sufficient certainty. The smaller sign 8 above 7 is abnormal, and 2 which is
1 See my Further Discoveries of Cretan, &c. of the miraculous nurture of the infant by ' she-
Scrifit, J. H. S., xvii, p. 358. goat' and 'bee'—Amalthea and Melissa—cf.
2 Od. x. 519; xi. 27. Lactantius, De Falsa Religiotie, i. 21, 22.
3 Diod. v. 70. For the ritual presentation
The triple receptacle indicated by the remains of the larger Table Triple
corresponds with the triple aspect of the cult of this Cave Sanctuary, as ^de for
to which remarkable evidence is supplied by a votive bronze plate de- Libations,
scribed below. The custom of offering threefold libation itself £oes back
to the earliest religious stratum of Greece.1 According to the old Arcadian
rite recorded in the Odyssey the dead before the falls of Styx were appeased
by a triple libation :
rrpcoTa fieXiKpr/Tcp, /leTeneiTa Se f]8ei otvcp,
\ ' T A» r! CN 9
TO TpiTOV aVU VOOLTl."
The chthonic aspects of the Minoan cult, to which attention has already
been called, tend to strengthen these comparisons, and the offering of the
/ I"
it..
it--H
Fig. 467. Inscription on Psychro Libation Table.
/xeXiKpriTa would have been specially appropriate in the Cave where, accord-
ing to the legend, the infant Zeus was fed by the Nymphs ' with mingled milk
and honey \3
A small fragment showing traces of three characters brought to light in inscrip
the same sacrificial deposit by Monsieur J. Demargne of the French School Libatio
at Athens in 1897, at a spot a little South of that in which the larger part of Table,
the Libation Table occurred, and a cast of it kindly supplied by the finder,
shows that it fitted on to its upper margin, with which it is incorporated
in the photographic Figure 466. It appears, therefore, that there were
originally two lines of inscription, both running from left to right, and
arranged from the same point of view, possibly an indication that the table
was set against the Cavern wall. The characters in their essential forms are
reproduced in Fig. 467. 1, 6, and 7 of the lower line can be completed with
sufficient certainty. The smaller sign 8 above 7 is abnormal, and 2 which is
1 See my Further Discoveries of Cretan, &c. of the miraculous nurture of the infant by ' she-
Scrifit, J. H. S., xvii, p. 358. goat' and 'bee'—Amalthea and Melissa—cf.
2 Od. x. 519; xi. 27. Lactantius, De Falsa Religiotie, i. 21, 22.
3 Diod. v. 70. For the ritual presentation