DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0010
8 ARTHUR EVANS
sports,—well symbolised in the preceding scene by the ' sacral knot,'—it
seems permissible to regard the action of the personage here represented as of a
sacrificial nature. This, in fact, is the final act of the performance, in which a
successful bull-grappler, here invested with priestly insignia, slaughters the
chosen beast before the altar. We learn, indeed, from the miniature fresco of
Knossos that a small temple of the Goddess overlooked the arena where such
sports took place.
It looks, indeed, as if an actual survival of such a practice may be found
(where we should most naturally have sought it) in a ritual sacrifice to the local
Zeus at Miletos—itself the reputed colony of the homonymous Cretan town,
rich in Minoan relies—and which was at the same time a centre of survival of
the kindred Carian stock. Its sanctuary at Didyma, indeed, preserves a
record of Cretan traditions in the shape of an inner staircase with a marble
ceiling presenting a huge relief of a maeander, inscribed AABYPIN0OS.17 It
is not then surprising to find that the adjoining temenos of the local Zeus Soter
was the scene of a festival in which an ox was sacrificed before the altar of
Zeus Hyetios by the winner in a contest known as the Bor/yia, and who
himself bore the name of B01770?.18 That this contest had involved a ' cow-
boy ' feat seems to be a fair conclusion. By the time to which the inscriptions
belong that relate to this festival, the object of the sacrifice was naturally
no longer the Goddess but her Son.
No. 3, PL I. 3, Fig. 8. Weight 6-61 gm. Lion Seizing Galloping Bull.
A lion who has sprung at the shoulders of a galloping bull seizes on his
neck vertebrae with his teeth—a paralysing action known to all beasts of prey
—and bears his great quarry down. This, in itself, is a constantly recurring
subject of Minoan and Mycenaean art, of which we see a variant form in the
lion seizing a deer on the Mycenae dagger-blade. In the present case, how-
ever, there is a remarkable adjunct. On both the hind- and the fore-legs of
the lion are visible double rings which must be taken to show that the animal
17 B. Haussoullier, Rev. Philologique, NIKHCANTOC (see Melanges Weil, p.
1905, p. 265, and Didyme, p. 93, etc.; j4g); surely indicates something more than
Wiegand, Abh. d. Berliner Akad., 1911, this. The modification of the contest in
p. 49, andcf. 1908, p. 35; R. C. Bosanquet, favour 0£ mere oxen in place of half-wild
Recent Excavations in Miletus (Dublin Lee- bu\\s js omy what might have been expected
ture), and ef. my Palace of Minos, i. p. 359. ;n the COurse 0f centuries. P. Bechtel, more-
18 A connexion between the Boiiyia and ovev (Nachrichten d. k. Qes. d. Wissensclmften
the TavponaBdipia had already been sug- zu gsttingen, 1890, pp. 34, 35), has pointed
gested by Chishull, Antiquitates Asiaticae out thafc £ne phrase Tavpov vetpetpaKovras
(1728), p. 94, No. 7 and note. B. Haus- (Attiei, Taipov reenpimres) of a Thessalian
soullier, indeed, Melanges Henri Weil inscription relating to the Tavponadd^ia (H. G.
(1898), p. 146 seqq., puts forward the Lolling, Mitth. d. Arch. Inst, in Athen.,
contrary view that the Bon-yhs was simply vi; (1882) 346 s) explains the BovBiipas of
the breeder of the ox which won the numerous North Greek inscriptions. Here
acceptance of the college of priests, and we have just the same devolution from
compares a ceremony in Cos (Paton and Taspos to ffovs. In any case the widespread
Hicks, Inscriptions of Cos, No. 37) in which traoes Qf the Minoan bull-grappling sports
the priests made their choice among oxen j^ye placed the matter on a wholly new
driven before them on behalf of the basis since the date when Haussoullier
three tribes. But the repeated formula expressed his views.
of the Didyma inscriptions, B 0 H F~ IAI
sports,—well symbolised in the preceding scene by the ' sacral knot,'—it
seems permissible to regard the action of the personage here represented as of a
sacrificial nature. This, in fact, is the final act of the performance, in which a
successful bull-grappler, here invested with priestly insignia, slaughters the
chosen beast before the altar. We learn, indeed, from the miniature fresco of
Knossos that a small temple of the Goddess overlooked the arena where such
sports took place.
It looks, indeed, as if an actual survival of such a practice may be found
(where we should most naturally have sought it) in a ritual sacrifice to the local
Zeus at Miletos—itself the reputed colony of the homonymous Cretan town,
rich in Minoan relies—and which was at the same time a centre of survival of
the kindred Carian stock. Its sanctuary at Didyma, indeed, preserves a
record of Cretan traditions in the shape of an inner staircase with a marble
ceiling presenting a huge relief of a maeander, inscribed AABYPIN0OS.17 It
is not then surprising to find that the adjoining temenos of the local Zeus Soter
was the scene of a festival in which an ox was sacrificed before the altar of
Zeus Hyetios by the winner in a contest known as the Bor/yia, and who
himself bore the name of B01770?.18 That this contest had involved a ' cow-
boy ' feat seems to be a fair conclusion. By the time to which the inscriptions
belong that relate to this festival, the object of the sacrifice was naturally
no longer the Goddess but her Son.
No. 3, PL I. 3, Fig. 8. Weight 6-61 gm. Lion Seizing Galloping Bull.
A lion who has sprung at the shoulders of a galloping bull seizes on his
neck vertebrae with his teeth—a paralysing action known to all beasts of prey
—and bears his great quarry down. This, in itself, is a constantly recurring
subject of Minoan and Mycenaean art, of which we see a variant form in the
lion seizing a deer on the Mycenae dagger-blade. In the present case, how-
ever, there is a remarkable adjunct. On both the hind- and the fore-legs of
the lion are visible double rings which must be taken to show that the animal
17 B. Haussoullier, Rev. Philologique, NIKHCANTOC (see Melanges Weil, p.
1905, p. 265, and Didyme, p. 93, etc.; j4g); surely indicates something more than
Wiegand, Abh. d. Berliner Akad., 1911, this. The modification of the contest in
p. 49, andcf. 1908, p. 35; R. C. Bosanquet, favour 0£ mere oxen in place of half-wild
Recent Excavations in Miletus (Dublin Lee- bu\\s js omy what might have been expected
ture), and ef. my Palace of Minos, i. p. 359. ;n the COurse 0f centuries. P. Bechtel, more-
18 A connexion between the Boiiyia and ovev (Nachrichten d. k. Qes. d. Wissensclmften
the TavponaBdipia had already been sug- zu gsttingen, 1890, pp. 34, 35), has pointed
gested by Chishull, Antiquitates Asiaticae out thafc £ne phrase Tavpov vetpetpaKovras
(1728), p. 94, No. 7 and note. B. Haus- (Attiei, Taipov reenpimres) of a Thessalian
soullier, indeed, Melanges Henri Weil inscription relating to the Tavponadd^ia (H. G.
(1898), p. 146 seqq., puts forward the Lolling, Mitth. d. Arch. Inst, in Athen.,
contrary view that the Bon-yhs was simply vi; (1882) 346 s) explains the BovBiipas of
the breeder of the ox which won the numerous North Greek inscriptions. Here
acceptance of the college of priests, and we have just the same devolution from
compares a ceremony in Cos (Paton and Taspos to ffovs. In any case the widespread
Hicks, Inscriptions of Cos, No. 37) in which traoes Qf the Minoan bull-grappling sports
the priests made their choice among oxen j^ye placed the matter on a wholly new
driven before them on behalf of the basis since the date when Haussoullier
three tribes. But the repeated formula expressed his views.
of the Didyma inscriptions, B 0 H F~ IAI