DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0033
'THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC.
31
priest-kings has already been suggested.81 In other cases sacerdotal or royal
figures are attended by guardian monsters. A long-robed priest on one of
the Vapheio gems is seen leading a griffin,82 and the most probable explanation
of the attitude of the painted relief of the priest-king with the plumed crown
found in the Palace of Knossos is that he is leading a guardian monster, who
may be either a griffin or a sphinx.83 It is not, after all, an unlikely sup-
position that a young conqueror or princely adventurer on the way to seize
the throne of Thebes should be represented as slaying the monster that may
already in the imagination of men have infested its approach.
In the scene before us, where the Sphinx puts up a fight, the alternative
version of the story, in which the reading of the riddle reduces her to impotence,
is excluded. It is possible, therefore, that the form of the saga where Oedipus
relies on his weapon to slay the monster, may have been the earliest prevalent
among the Greeks.84 The weapon that he uses varies in different presenta-
tions, and may be a lance or a sword, a club, or even a stone,85 and there is
no evidence of any direct tradition of the Kadmeian scheme as we see it here.
The favourite version in later times is, of course, the Sphinx seated on a rock
propounding the riddle. In any case, however, the destruction of a monster
as a consequence of the solving of a question or riddle is so widespread in folk
stories that it is difficult to separate the two forms of the episode.
Fig. 33.—Combat between" a Bowman in a Chariot and another on foot.
From Impression. (£)
No. 12, PI. III. 2, Pig. 33. Weight 13-22 gm. Combat between a bowman in a
chariot and another on foot, in rocky gorge.
This intaglio seems to have a close relation to the preceding. On the
right we see apparently the same youthful hero, whose principal arm is in
81 P. 17. J. Ilbert, art. ' Sphinx,' Roseher's Lezikon,
82 'E$. 'Apx-, 1889, PI. X. 32. iv. p. 1363 seqq.
83 See P. of M., vol. ii. 85 Materials regarding the form of the
84 Bethe, Thebanische Heldenlieder, p. combat are collected by O. Hofer, s.v.
20 seqq., adopts this view. See, however, ' Oidipus,' op. cit., iii. p. 717 seqq.
31
priest-kings has already been suggested.81 In other cases sacerdotal or royal
figures are attended by guardian monsters. A long-robed priest on one of
the Vapheio gems is seen leading a griffin,82 and the most probable explanation
of the attitude of the painted relief of the priest-king with the plumed crown
found in the Palace of Knossos is that he is leading a guardian monster, who
may be either a griffin or a sphinx.83 It is not, after all, an unlikely sup-
position that a young conqueror or princely adventurer on the way to seize
the throne of Thebes should be represented as slaying the monster that may
already in the imagination of men have infested its approach.
In the scene before us, where the Sphinx puts up a fight, the alternative
version of the story, in which the reading of the riddle reduces her to impotence,
is excluded. It is possible, therefore, that the form of the saga where Oedipus
relies on his weapon to slay the monster, may have been the earliest prevalent
among the Greeks.84 The weapon that he uses varies in different presenta-
tions, and may be a lance or a sword, a club, or even a stone,85 and there is
no evidence of any direct tradition of the Kadmeian scheme as we see it here.
The favourite version in later times is, of course, the Sphinx seated on a rock
propounding the riddle. In any case, however, the destruction of a monster
as a consequence of the solving of a question or riddle is so widespread in folk
stories that it is difficult to separate the two forms of the episode.
Fig. 33.—Combat between" a Bowman in a Chariot and another on foot.
From Impression. (£)
No. 12, PI. III. 2, Pig. 33. Weight 13-22 gm. Combat between a bowman in a
chariot and another on foot, in rocky gorge.
This intaglio seems to have a close relation to the preceding. On the
right we see apparently the same youthful hero, whose principal arm is in
81 P. 17. J. Ilbert, art. ' Sphinx,' Roseher's Lezikon,
82 'E$. 'Apx-, 1889, PI. X. 32. iv. p. 1363 seqq.
83 See P. of M., vol. ii. 85 Materials regarding the form of the
84 Bethe, Thebanische Heldenlieder, p. combat are collected by O. Hofer, s.v.
20 seqq., adopts this view. See, however, ' Oidipus,' op. cit., iii. p. 717 seqq.