DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0765
M. M. Ill: WINGED CREATIONS AND 'FLYING GALLOP' 719
of Khyan in Manetho's list.1 The owner of the dagger, described upon it
as Nhiman, is there 'seen spearing a lion,2 engaged in the pursuit of an
antelope, who springs above him with his hindlegs thrown out behind, much
as in the Minoan scheme of the 'flying-leap' illustrated above.
It has been already pointed out that the misunderstood copy of a
Melian vase-painter had transformed a Griffin under his Minoan aspect as
engaged in a flying gallop into a long-tailed bird, at a time corresponding
with the earliest M. M. Ill phase. This derivative form makes it certain,
as we have seen, that the Griffin, as he thus appears on an embossed plaque
from the Third Shaft Grave, was already known in Crete before the close Engraved
of M. M. II. But this archaeological result—confirmed by the hieroglyphic Dagger-1
bead-seal, Fig. 539, c—which would carry back the 'flying gallop' motive in j?1^
the island to an epoch contemporary with the Twelfth or Thirteenth Dynast)', Crete,
has received a remarkable confirmation from the hunting scenes on an
engraved bronze dagger-blade recently discovered in the Lasethi district,
possibly in the Psychro Cave itself, Fig. 541, a, b.
The tang of this blade has been broken away, but its upper part, which
is provided with three rivets, shows two short flanges on either shoulder to
grip the edge of the wooden handle. The form itself is interesting, since,
except that the shoulders are slightly more sloping, it exactly corresponds
with a type of short sword found in the annexe of the smaller ossuary tholos
at Hagia Triada 3—the tang being in that case so far preserved as to show
another rivet-hole. This type, as pointed out above, is probably con-
temporary with the later class of polychrome pottery found in this annexe,
which belongs to about the middle of M. M. II. The elate of the Lasethi
dagger can hardly be brought down lower than the close of that Period.
One side of the blade exhibits a fight between two bulls, both at a flying The
gallop, that to the right with his hind-legs throw n upwards as if he were Leapj and
leaping down, and recalling the ' flying-leap' of the wild-goat on the signet- d
impression, Fig. 539, c, above, and of the gazelle on the Mycenae dagger-blade, on it.
The off front leg of this animal is curiously contorted. The sprays marked g^t!.ng
against the bodies of the animals must be understood as issuing from the
ground and indicate that the encounter takes place in a bushy country.
On the other side is a boar-hunt. The boar charges — again at a flying- and
Boar
gallop—and is encountered by the hunter with a spear-thrust at his forehead, hunt.
A tuft of sprays indicates the thicket from which he has broken. The
1 See H. R. Hall, The Ancient History of 2 The object held in the hunter's left hand
the Near East, p. 216 and n. 2. In Manetho's is undoubtedly a throwing stick,
version the name is ' Iannas '. 3 See above, pp. 194, 195, and Fig. 142 c.
of Khyan in Manetho's list.1 The owner of the dagger, described upon it
as Nhiman, is there 'seen spearing a lion,2 engaged in the pursuit of an
antelope, who springs above him with his hindlegs thrown out behind, much
as in the Minoan scheme of the 'flying-leap' illustrated above.
It has been already pointed out that the misunderstood copy of a
Melian vase-painter had transformed a Griffin under his Minoan aspect as
engaged in a flying gallop into a long-tailed bird, at a time corresponding
with the earliest M. M. Ill phase. This derivative form makes it certain,
as we have seen, that the Griffin, as he thus appears on an embossed plaque
from the Third Shaft Grave, was already known in Crete before the close Engraved
of M. M. II. But this archaeological result—confirmed by the hieroglyphic Dagger-1
bead-seal, Fig. 539, c—which would carry back the 'flying gallop' motive in j?1^
the island to an epoch contemporary with the Twelfth or Thirteenth Dynast)', Crete,
has received a remarkable confirmation from the hunting scenes on an
engraved bronze dagger-blade recently discovered in the Lasethi district,
possibly in the Psychro Cave itself, Fig. 541, a, b.
The tang of this blade has been broken away, but its upper part, which
is provided with three rivets, shows two short flanges on either shoulder to
grip the edge of the wooden handle. The form itself is interesting, since,
except that the shoulders are slightly more sloping, it exactly corresponds
with a type of short sword found in the annexe of the smaller ossuary tholos
at Hagia Triada 3—the tang being in that case so far preserved as to show
another rivet-hole. This type, as pointed out above, is probably con-
temporary with the later class of polychrome pottery found in this annexe,
which belongs to about the middle of M. M. II. The elate of the Lasethi
dagger can hardly be brought down lower than the close of that Period.
One side of the blade exhibits a fight between two bulls, both at a flying The
gallop, that to the right with his hind-legs throw n upwards as if he were Leapj and
leaping down, and recalling the ' flying-leap' of the wild-goat on the signet- d
impression, Fig. 539, c, above, and of the gazelle on the Mycenae dagger-blade, on it.
The off front leg of this animal is curiously contorted. The sprays marked g^t!.ng
against the bodies of the animals must be understood as issuing from the
ground and indicate that the encounter takes place in a bushy country.
On the other side is a boar-hunt. The boar charges — again at a flying- and
Boar
gallop—and is encountered by the hunter with a spear-thrust at his forehead, hunt.
A tuft of sprays indicates the thicket from which he has broken. The
1 See H. R. Hall, The Ancient History of 2 The object held in the hunter's left hand
the Near East, p. 216 and n. 2. In Manetho's is undoubtedly a throwing stick,
version the name is ' Iannas '. 3 See above, pp. 194, 195, and Fig. 142 c.