DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0031
'THE RING OF NESTOR/ ETC. 29
Charioteer of No. 12, and in all these oases it would seem to be a badge of
superior dignity. Two of the warriors in the scene of combat on the ring
from the Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae wear helmets of this form—another
coincidence in fashion.75 This is the predecessor of the early Greek type
with a plain conical headpiece and tassel as it already appears on one of the
bronze shields from the Idaean Cave.76 The Sphinx en the Thisbe intaglio
also wears a broad jewelled collar, and round her fore-feet and ankles are
triple rings as on the lion of No. 3, but in this case clearly worn as
ornaments. A long lock of hair falls behind her neck, but there are no
coils about the breast such as are seen in the more usual Minoan type of
Sphinx and Griffin
One detail of the wings is specially noteworthy. Their feathers clearly
reproduce the ' notched plume ' ornament, a sacral feature that characterises
the Minoan sphinxes and griffins from the last Middle Minoan Period
onwards, and which in the case of the griffin on King Aahmes' dagger-blade was
also taken over into Egyptian art.77
The wild nature of the spot in which the encounter takes place is shown
by the conventional rocks that appear along the upper margin of the field.
Two engraved lines indicate, as usual, the ground below, and small plants are
seen rising between the legs of the combatants, much resembling those associated
with the rising of the Spring Goddess on No. 6, Fig. 16 above. Similar plants,
in that case undoubtedly intended for young palms, occur on both the Yapheio
cups. •
Here then, on a Boeotian jewel, not later, as we may judge from its
associations and the character of certain details, than the first half of the
fifteenth century B.C., we have already depicted for us the episode of the
young prince attacking a Sphinx which is part and parcel of the later story
of Oedipus.
That the story here, indeed, is somewhat different is at once apparent.
There is no halting in the gait of the youthful hero, nor any sign of swelling
of the foot such as gave his name to the Greek ' Swoln-foot.' It is true that
Greek art, which did not shrink from exhibiting the bandaged leg of Philoktetes,
glosses over this feature in the case of Oedipus, but we cannot be so sure
that the Minoan artist would have omitted it.
The Sphinx here differs from all other presentations of the monster in
Minoan or Mycenaean art in the active and combatant attitude that she
takes up. Elsewhere she is seen, for instance, on either side of a sacred tree
or as in an ivory relief from Mycenae,78 resting her foot on the capital of a low
column : sometimes she is seated before rocks or, as so often in Greco-Roman
representations, in a merely decorative capacity, but always in a sedentary pose.
Here she is depicted as the militant guardian of a wild, rocky country which
may surely be identified with the Sphingion Oros,7S6 the reputed haunt of the
" Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 223, Fig. 23S. digenous Boeotian form of S<t>ty( (of. Hesiod,
76 Orsi,AntrodiZeu8Ideo,p. 117,andPl.V, Theogonia, 323). Doubts have been es-
77 See P. of M., i. p. 548 seqq. pressed whether *f£ and 2<piy£ are really
78 'E<p. 'Apx-, 1887, PI. XIII., B. connected philologically (of. B. Bethe,
786 Otherwise the Vikgiuv from *f| the in- Thebanische Heldemage, p. 21).
Charioteer of No. 12, and in all these oases it would seem to be a badge of
superior dignity. Two of the warriors in the scene of combat on the ring
from the Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae wear helmets of this form—another
coincidence in fashion.75 This is the predecessor of the early Greek type
with a plain conical headpiece and tassel as it already appears on one of the
bronze shields from the Idaean Cave.76 The Sphinx en the Thisbe intaglio
also wears a broad jewelled collar, and round her fore-feet and ankles are
triple rings as on the lion of No. 3, but in this case clearly worn as
ornaments. A long lock of hair falls behind her neck, but there are no
coils about the breast such as are seen in the more usual Minoan type of
Sphinx and Griffin
One detail of the wings is specially noteworthy. Their feathers clearly
reproduce the ' notched plume ' ornament, a sacral feature that characterises
the Minoan sphinxes and griffins from the last Middle Minoan Period
onwards, and which in the case of the griffin on King Aahmes' dagger-blade was
also taken over into Egyptian art.77
The wild nature of the spot in which the encounter takes place is shown
by the conventional rocks that appear along the upper margin of the field.
Two engraved lines indicate, as usual, the ground below, and small plants are
seen rising between the legs of the combatants, much resembling those associated
with the rising of the Spring Goddess on No. 6, Fig. 16 above. Similar plants,
in that case undoubtedly intended for young palms, occur on both the Yapheio
cups. •
Here then, on a Boeotian jewel, not later, as we may judge from its
associations and the character of certain details, than the first half of the
fifteenth century B.C., we have already depicted for us the episode of the
young prince attacking a Sphinx which is part and parcel of the later story
of Oedipus.
That the story here, indeed, is somewhat different is at once apparent.
There is no halting in the gait of the youthful hero, nor any sign of swelling
of the foot such as gave his name to the Greek ' Swoln-foot.' It is true that
Greek art, which did not shrink from exhibiting the bandaged leg of Philoktetes,
glosses over this feature in the case of Oedipus, but we cannot be so sure
that the Minoan artist would have omitted it.
The Sphinx here differs from all other presentations of the monster in
Minoan or Mycenaean art in the active and combatant attitude that she
takes up. Elsewhere she is seen, for instance, on either side of a sacred tree
or as in an ivory relief from Mycenae,78 resting her foot on the capital of a low
column : sometimes she is seated before rocks or, as so often in Greco-Roman
representations, in a merely decorative capacity, but always in a sedentary pose.
Here she is depicted as the militant guardian of a wild, rocky country which
may surely be identified with the Sphingion Oros,7S6 the reputed haunt of the
" Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 223, Fig. 23S. digenous Boeotian form of S<t>ty( (of. Hesiod,
76 Orsi,AntrodiZeu8Ideo,p. 117,andPl.V, Theogonia, 323). Doubts have been es-
77 See P. of M., i. p. 548 seqq. pressed whether *f£ and 2<piy£ are really
78 'E<p. 'Apx-, 1887, PI. XIII., B. connected philologically (of. B. Bethe,
786 Otherwise the Vikgiuv from *f| the in- Thebanische Heldemage, p. 21).