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: WINGED CREATIONS AND ' FLYING GALLOP' 711

of the Sun, and hawks' wings are found attached to its sacred orb. The with
species is supposed to be the sparrow-hawk,1 and the arrangement and Herds3
marking of feathers about its eyes suggested the lines that radiate from
them in the sacral Egyptian versions (see Fig. 533, e). But, from the first, Minoan
the Minoan artists in their adaptations of the Egyptian model converted tives™

Fig. 534. Griffin at a 'Flying Gallop' on Dagger-blade, Mycenae.

Fig. 535. Bird-Griffin. On Melian Vase of Farly Middle Cycladic III Date.

these lines, which had some relation to natural features in their original
form, into decorative coils that fall about the neck and spread along the
lower part of the wings. The evidence supplied by the Melian ceramic
design of the beginning of the Third Cycladic Period, repeated in Fig. 533, 1, ^Iin°an.

& 1 -i 1 Griffins in

clearly shows that these decorative coils were a characteristic of the Minoan 'Flying

1 * Cj' Hod '

Griffin with the 'flying gallop' that supplied its prototype, and which, as a °p '
already noted, is shown by the existence of this early derivative form to go
up to within at least the lower limits of M. M. II. This elongated Griffin

derived from the eagle became accreted to the 1 F. LI. Griffith, Beni-Hasan, iii (Hiero-
Sacred Hawk later, but there is no trace of glyphs), p. 7.
these in the earlier types.