DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0021
'THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC. 19
reference to the growth of vegetation. We can hardly, therefore, insist on the
occurrence in one case of what appears to be a vine laden with grapes, and
thence infer that we have here a contributory libation of wine poured into the
sacred jar for the Goddess's fruition. It may indeed be regarded as a moot
point whether wine from the juice of the grape was really known in Minoan
Crete, though there are strong indications of the existence of some kind of
beer brewed from malted barley. It seems preferable to connect the ceremonial
pouring of the liquid contents of the smaller vessel into the greater with methods
of ' sympathetic magic' in vogue among primitive folk the world over for
securing rain in seasons of drought. Thus in a fragment of Celtic folk-lore
preserved in the Roman de Bou we are told how, with this object in view, the
Breton huntsmen filled their drinking-horns from the spring of Berenton
and emptied them over the steps of the fountain.42 The ' sweet-smelling
goblet' of Theokritos,43 ' such as the Horai'—the rain-givers of classical
Greece—'might have washed in their springs,' has been thought to bear a
similar significance.44
The view that these intaglio types present ceremonial acts designed to
secure rain in a dry season—a not unfrequent contingency in Crete—receives
support from the appearance of a whole series of somewhat summarily
engraved stones, belonging to a numerous amuletic class,45 which there is
every reason for regarding as rain-charms.
The central feature of these stones,46 which are either lentoids or amygda-
loids of the earlier type with smooth backs, is most frequently a beaker, jug
or ewer, sometimes spouted and identical with a Cretan hieroglyph 47 which,
except for its handle, recalls the Egyptian libation vase sign, qebeh. Some-
times these jugs have a flaring mouth, sometimes a high, narrow neck and the
handles are curved like the letter S, this and the globular rendering of the body
answering to the requirements of wholesale production by a rapid use of the
engraver's wheel and blunt point. In other cases the jug or ewer is replaced
by a two-handled cup of the kantharos type, with similar S-handles, and
often surmounted by a conical lid.48 These vessels are always accompanied
in the design with sprays of vegetation, at times rising from the conventional
43 See Palace of Minos, i. pp. 414, 415. went together to the stone and poured
43 Roman de Roil, ii. 6399, seqq. wine over the top, praying the while for
44 Idyll, i. 149, 150 : rain (see Archaeologia, 1885, p. 104).
,. . _, „ , . ,,/„ 45 See Palace of Minos, i. p. 672 seqq.
, This class is so common that I have
'Clpav wXvaeai n» M Kpavaun *•*,«.*. & dQZQn specimens from CentraI and Eastern
See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (1875), Crete in my own Collection.
Nachtrag, p. 169, for other comparisons. " ScHpta Minoa, i. p. 197, No. 40. For
A curious instance of such a rain-producing the jug with the beaked spout, cf. No. 47,
rite was noted by me at Ibrahimovci near p. 200.
the ancient Seupi (Skoplje). I was informed 48 This lidded type also occurs on both
that an altar, with a dedication to Jupiter, sides of an inscribed tablet of the Linear
which I had observed lying face downwards Class A from Hagia Triada. It is followed
there on the village green, was set up in on one side by the ideograph of a male
its proper position in times of drought, axe divinity of which a female version is
and that the villagers, both Christian and also found.
Mahometan, with a local Bey at the head,
c2
reference to the growth of vegetation. We can hardly, therefore, insist on the
occurrence in one case of what appears to be a vine laden with grapes, and
thence infer that we have here a contributory libation of wine poured into the
sacred jar for the Goddess's fruition. It may indeed be regarded as a moot
point whether wine from the juice of the grape was really known in Minoan
Crete, though there are strong indications of the existence of some kind of
beer brewed from malted barley. It seems preferable to connect the ceremonial
pouring of the liquid contents of the smaller vessel into the greater with methods
of ' sympathetic magic' in vogue among primitive folk the world over for
securing rain in seasons of drought. Thus in a fragment of Celtic folk-lore
preserved in the Roman de Bou we are told how, with this object in view, the
Breton huntsmen filled their drinking-horns from the spring of Berenton
and emptied them over the steps of the fountain.42 The ' sweet-smelling
goblet' of Theokritos,43 ' such as the Horai'—the rain-givers of classical
Greece—'might have washed in their springs,' has been thought to bear a
similar significance.44
The view that these intaglio types present ceremonial acts designed to
secure rain in a dry season—a not unfrequent contingency in Crete—receives
support from the appearance of a whole series of somewhat summarily
engraved stones, belonging to a numerous amuletic class,45 which there is
every reason for regarding as rain-charms.
The central feature of these stones,46 which are either lentoids or amygda-
loids of the earlier type with smooth backs, is most frequently a beaker, jug
or ewer, sometimes spouted and identical with a Cretan hieroglyph 47 which,
except for its handle, recalls the Egyptian libation vase sign, qebeh. Some-
times these jugs have a flaring mouth, sometimes a high, narrow neck and the
handles are curved like the letter S, this and the globular rendering of the body
answering to the requirements of wholesale production by a rapid use of the
engraver's wheel and blunt point. In other cases the jug or ewer is replaced
by a two-handled cup of the kantharos type, with similar S-handles, and
often surmounted by a conical lid.48 These vessels are always accompanied
in the design with sprays of vegetation, at times rising from the conventional
43 See Palace of Minos, i. pp. 414, 415. went together to the stone and poured
43 Roman de Roil, ii. 6399, seqq. wine over the top, praying the while for
44 Idyll, i. 149, 150 : rain (see Archaeologia, 1885, p. 104).
,. . _, „ , . ,,/„ 45 See Palace of Minos, i. p. 672 seqq.
, This class is so common that I have
'Clpav wXvaeai n» M Kpavaun *•*,«.*. & dQZQn specimens from CentraI and Eastern
See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (1875), Crete in my own Collection.
Nachtrag, p. 169, for other comparisons. " ScHpta Minoa, i. p. 197, No. 40. For
A curious instance of such a rain-producing the jug with the beaked spout, cf. No. 47,
rite was noted by me at Ibrahimovci near p. 200.
the ancient Seupi (Skoplje). I was informed 48 This lidded type also occurs on both
that an altar, with a dedication to Jupiter, sides of an inscribed tablet of the Linear
which I had observed lying face downwards Class A from Hagia Triada. It is followed
there on the village green, was set up in on one side by the ideograph of a male
its proper position in times of drought, axe divinity of which a female version is
and that the villagers, both Christian and also found.
Mahometan, with a local Bey at the head,
c2