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' 715

we see this motive in its natural place on the engraved rib of the dagger-
blade of Queen Aah-hotep, Fig. 537.1 The episode, here illustrated, of
a lion chasing a bull at a headlong gallop is in a purely Minoan setting. The
rocks above, in an inverted position with their outer border and granulated

Fig. 537. Part of Engraved Dagger of Queen Aah-hotep, showing 'Flying

Gallop' Motive in Minoan Setting.

inner section, are those of the Cretan frescoes and vase paintings of the
Middle Minoan Age. The details as well as the spirit of the design are
indeed so purely Minoan that it is difficult not to conclude that this part of
the engraving, and with it probably the grasshoppers beyond, was the work
of a Minoan craftsman.

Fig. 538. Inlaid Dagger from Fourth Shaft Grave, Mycenae.

On a larger scale, no doubt, the ' flying gallop' motive was equally ' Flying
adapted to friezes of painted stucco reliefs or of fresco on the flat. Of these ^mItTi
indeed we may see a reflection in the bull-hunting scenes of the Vapheio Sealmgs

J .... r and Inlaid

cups as well as on the intaglio designs derived from the same cycle. To Blades of
some of these, bearing traces of their architectonic inspiration in the triple AIicenae>
base below, attention has been already called above.2 It will be seen that

1 From a photograph of the dagger-blade, kindly supplied me by Mr. C. C. Edgar, of the
Cairo Museum. 2 See p. 686.