DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0026
24
ARTHUR EVANS
Italian metal-work dating from about 800 B.C.,62 amongst which a very near
parallel may be recognised in a bronze ornament from the S. Francesco hoard
at Bologna. Of special interest, too, is the recurrence of this scheme on ivory
fibula plates from the Orthia sanctuary at Sparta, in which case we see Artemis
—in one example winged and facing, in the other wingless and with her head to
the left—who grasps two birds by the necks in heraldic opposition.63 Of about
the same date is the painted clay box in the Boeotian style from Thebes,64
showing the Goddess, with curved wings issuing from her shoulders, holding
up two small water-fowl (Fig. 27). From the beginning of the seventh century
onwards the catena of such subjects is well maintained.
A new light, moreover, is thrown on the origin of the shoulder wings on these
early Greek figures of Artemis, wrhich have hitherto been simply regarded,as
importations from the East. That the Oriental type, ultimately derived from
Fig. 27.—' Winged ' Artemis
holding two waterfowl
on Boeotian Clay Bos. (j)
Fig. 28.—Goddess with ' Sacral
Knots ' on her Shoulders be-
tween Two Griffins, (f)
Egypt, later affected Greek archaic art is indisputable. But the evidence
before us tends strongly to the conclusion that their first appearance in Greece
in connexion with Artemis is, in fact, due to a quite natural interpretation
of a feature in some of her Minoan prototypes—the ' sacral knots ' proceeding
from the shoulders on either side. One of these has already been pointed out
in the case of the profile view of Diktynna drawing her bow seen in Fig. 25,
where the ends of the knot curve down and the fringe of the tartan was clearly
visible. But in order to bring out this sacral feature clearly on both sides
where the Goddess is seen from the front, these knots are depicted as curving
upwards from the shoulders as in Fig. 15 above. A good instance, again,
of this device is to be seen on an unpublished haematite lentoid from Central
Crete 65 of Late Minoan date, where a facing figure of the Goddess appears between
two griffins—heraldically arranged as in the other schemes with which we are
at present concerned—from the shoulders of which two similar objects curve
62 See my remarks, J.H.S., xiii. p. 201,
and cf. S. Keinach and J. Boehlau, Jahrb.
d. arch. Inst., 1901, p. 190.
63 B. M. Dawkins, B.S.A., xiii., 1906-
1907, pp. 78-80, and Figs. 17 6, 18 a.
61 J. Boehlau, Bootische Vasen (Jahrb.
d. arch. Inst., 1888), p. 387.
65 In my Collection.
ARTHUR EVANS
Italian metal-work dating from about 800 B.C.,62 amongst which a very near
parallel may be recognised in a bronze ornament from the S. Francesco hoard
at Bologna. Of special interest, too, is the recurrence of this scheme on ivory
fibula plates from the Orthia sanctuary at Sparta, in which case we see Artemis
—in one example winged and facing, in the other wingless and with her head to
the left—who grasps two birds by the necks in heraldic opposition.63 Of about
the same date is the painted clay box in the Boeotian style from Thebes,64
showing the Goddess, with curved wings issuing from her shoulders, holding
up two small water-fowl (Fig. 27). From the beginning of the seventh century
onwards the catena of such subjects is well maintained.
A new light, moreover, is thrown on the origin of the shoulder wings on these
early Greek figures of Artemis, wrhich have hitherto been simply regarded,as
importations from the East. That the Oriental type, ultimately derived from
Fig. 27.—' Winged ' Artemis
holding two waterfowl
on Boeotian Clay Bos. (j)
Fig. 28.—Goddess with ' Sacral
Knots ' on her Shoulders be-
tween Two Griffins, (f)
Egypt, later affected Greek archaic art is indisputable. But the evidence
before us tends strongly to the conclusion that their first appearance in Greece
in connexion with Artemis is, in fact, due to a quite natural interpretation
of a feature in some of her Minoan prototypes—the ' sacral knots ' proceeding
from the shoulders on either side. One of these has already been pointed out
in the case of the profile view of Diktynna drawing her bow seen in Fig. 25,
where the ends of the knot curve down and the fringe of the tartan was clearly
visible. But in order to bring out this sacral feature clearly on both sides
where the Goddess is seen from the front, these knots are depicted as curving
upwards from the shoulders as in Fig. 15 above. A good instance, again,
of this device is to be seen on an unpublished haematite lentoid from Central
Crete 65 of Late Minoan date, where a facing figure of the Goddess appears between
two griffins—heraldically arranged as in the other schemes with which we are
at present concerned—from the shoulders of which two similar objects curve
62 See my remarks, J.H.S., xiii. p. 201,
and cf. S. Keinach and J. Boehlau, Jahrb.
d. arch. Inst., 1901, p. 190.
63 B. M. Dawkins, B.S.A., xiii., 1906-
1907, pp. 78-80, and Figs. 17 6, 18 a.
61 J. Boehlau, Bootische Vasen (Jahrb.
d. arch. Inst., 1888), p. 387.
65 In my Collection.