DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0032
30 ARTHUR EVANS
monster in Greek tradition. This is the Phagas range that lies between Thebes
and the Copais Lake and overlooks the road to Orchomenos.
Some interesting questions here suggest themselves. Are we to see in
the guardian monster, who on this Boeotian jewel stands in the path of the young
prince, actual evidence of the introduction of this mythic incident through
Minoan agency? It must be observed at the outset that in that case this
piece of folk-lore would have been very rapidly implanted. It would for many
reasons be unsafe to bring down the date of the intaglio on which this scene
occurs later than the early part of the fifteenth century before our era. On the
other hand, the earliest ceramic types obtained by Professor Keramopoullos
from the Theban cemeteries 79 consistently present the mature phase of L.M. I. b,
which may conveniently be referred to a date approaching 1500 B.C. The
first appearance, therefore, of the Sphinx—itself an Egypto-Minoan creation
of earlier date—in a Boeotian connexion must be almost contemporary with
the wave of Minoan conquest to which ' Kadmeian' Thebes owed its origin.
That the form of the Sphinx in art must go back on Boeotian soil to this early
epoch is clear, but the question remains whether her appearance .in local story
may not have been due to the taking over of some pre-existing monstrous
creation of indigenous growth. It is indisputable that the Hellenic Sphinx
as an artistic conception is derived from the Minoan, but the name itself is of
native'formation, being a derivative of the verb <r<f>iyyo}, ' to squeeze/ and we
recall that this ' constrictor ' was daughter of Echidna, the ' adder.' It would
seem that, before the arrival at Thebes of the Minoan conqueror, some monster
of indigenous growth had haunted this desert range. Gan it be that the older,
Minyan stock of Boeotia was itself Hellenic and that the Sphinx, thus trans-
formed, returned to the medium whence it sprung ?
The further question arises—though we have to deal with a mythical
creation in the guardian Sphinx—does this necessarily entail the conclusion
that the hero himself is unhistoric ? The explanation that we have simply
to do with a nursery story of the kind where the young prince, setting forth to
win a kingdom, slays the dragon placed in his path by magic power is good
so far as it goes. The Greek ' Swoln-foot' attacking the monstrous ' Squeezer'
has an air of pure folk-lore. But does this in the present case altogether
exclude the possibility that a mythic episode may have attached itself to the
career of a historic conqueror ? We have here before us a richly bedizened
youth dressed in the acme of Minoan or Kadmeian fashion, who certainly
conveys the impression of very mundane actuality. The strong presumption,
supported by many analogies, that a prince of this ancient stock combined
sacerdotal attributes and was himself semi-divine, goes far indeed to explain
the apparent incongruity of a mortal slaying a supernatural monster of this
class. By right of birth indeed such a scion of a Minoan royal house would
be the ordained medium of communication between the Gods and men. In
No. 6 above,80 a princely figure that may in many respects be compared
with that on the present intaglio is seen assisting the Goddess to arise from
the earth, where an allusion to an annual spring ceremony performed by the
78 See especially A. D. Keramopoullos, 80 P. 15 Fig. 16.
07j/fei*a ('Apx. AeATiW, 1917).
monster in Greek tradition. This is the Phagas range that lies between Thebes
and the Copais Lake and overlooks the road to Orchomenos.
Some interesting questions here suggest themselves. Are we to see in
the guardian monster, who on this Boeotian jewel stands in the path of the young
prince, actual evidence of the introduction of this mythic incident through
Minoan agency? It must be observed at the outset that in that case this
piece of folk-lore would have been very rapidly implanted. It would for many
reasons be unsafe to bring down the date of the intaglio on which this scene
occurs later than the early part of the fifteenth century before our era. On the
other hand, the earliest ceramic types obtained by Professor Keramopoullos
from the Theban cemeteries 79 consistently present the mature phase of L.M. I. b,
which may conveniently be referred to a date approaching 1500 B.C. The
first appearance, therefore, of the Sphinx—itself an Egypto-Minoan creation
of earlier date—in a Boeotian connexion must be almost contemporary with
the wave of Minoan conquest to which ' Kadmeian' Thebes owed its origin.
That the form of the Sphinx in art must go back on Boeotian soil to this early
epoch is clear, but the question remains whether her appearance .in local story
may not have been due to the taking over of some pre-existing monstrous
creation of indigenous growth. It is indisputable that the Hellenic Sphinx
as an artistic conception is derived from the Minoan, but the name itself is of
native'formation, being a derivative of the verb <r<f>iyyo}, ' to squeeze/ and we
recall that this ' constrictor ' was daughter of Echidna, the ' adder.' It would
seem that, before the arrival at Thebes of the Minoan conqueror, some monster
of indigenous growth had haunted this desert range. Gan it be that the older,
Minyan stock of Boeotia was itself Hellenic and that the Sphinx, thus trans-
formed, returned to the medium whence it sprung ?
The further question arises—though we have to deal with a mythical
creation in the guardian Sphinx—does this necessarily entail the conclusion
that the hero himself is unhistoric ? The explanation that we have simply
to do with a nursery story of the kind where the young prince, setting forth to
win a kingdom, slays the dragon placed in his path by magic power is good
so far as it goes. The Greek ' Swoln-foot' attacking the monstrous ' Squeezer'
has an air of pure folk-lore. But does this in the present case altogether
exclude the possibility that a mythic episode may have attached itself to the
career of a historic conqueror ? We have here before us a richly bedizened
youth dressed in the acme of Minoan or Kadmeian fashion, who certainly
conveys the impression of very mundane actuality. The strong presumption,
supported by many analogies, that a prince of this ancient stock combined
sacerdotal attributes and was himself semi-divine, goes far indeed to explain
the apparent incongruity of a mortal slaying a supernatural monster of this
class. By right of birth indeed such a scion of a Minoan royal house would
be the ordained medium of communication between the Gods and men. In
No. 6 above,80 a princely figure that may in many respects be compared
with that on the present intaglio is seen assisting the Goddess to arise from
the earth, where an allusion to an annual spring ceremony performed by the
78 See especially A. D. Keramopoullos, 80 P. 15 Fig. 16.
07j/fei*a ('Apx. AeATiW, 1917).