44q

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

is seen playing the double pipes. In the fellow group a male minstrel, in
a robe reaching to his .ankles, sounds a seven-stringed lyre — an instrument
which, as we know from its occurrence as a hieroglyph, already existed in
M.M. II. In both cases the sign of the visible presence of the Godhead, thus
charmed down into the sacred symbol, is shown in the raven-like birds 1

IIIIrED iScREEN 1 ^'YEILOW SbLUE

Fig. 317. Libations offered to Double Axes; from painted Sarcophagus,

Hagia Triada.

perched upon the Axe blades. It is the exact equivalent of the doves
perched upon the columns of the miniature sanctuary described above,2 and
represents a constantly recurring idea of primitive religion.

The culminating result of the whole ceremonial machinery as depicted
on the Sarcophagus is the calling back of the departed to the upper air for
some brief communion with those by whom his memory was cherished. For

1 Mr. Warde Fowler (Von Duhn, Archiv filr head and beak that is peculiar to the raven '.
Religionswissenschaft, xii, p. 167, note 2) ob- 2 See p. 222 and Fig. 1G6, f.
serves that ' the birds have all the outline of