DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0043
'THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC. 41
piece, Aiyi<r0o<;, shows a direct affinity with the most characteristic of old
Cretan and kindred Philistine and Anatolian forms that has been preserved to
us. On the ' London Tablet' of XVIIIth Dynasty date, a wooden slab with
a list of Keftian names for school use,113 it appears in the form Akashau, rightly
compared with the Philistine Achish (LXX. 'A^;^, 'A"/%oi>?). An Ikistusu,
King of Idalion, is mentioned among tributary Cyprian princes on inscriptions
of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Asur-bani-pal,114 though whether the
name reached Cyprus through Mycenaean or, in its adoptive shape, through
later Achaean-Arcadian intrusion may not be easy to determine. But the
occurrence of this in an XVIIIth dynasty record as a prominent Keftian,
otherwise Minoan, name is specially important. Thanks to the tomb-paintings
on the one hand and a series of Minoan vase finds on the other, we can fix
the period of intensive connexion round about 1500 B.C., and as contemporary
with the mature L.M. I. ceramic phase. It seems quite possible that, either
in Crete or in Mainland Greece, some Minoan king of this name held sway
at that time, and, if so, any tragedy with which he was connected must go
up far beyond the date of the Trojan War. It does not seem probable, indeed,
that Egyptian schoolboys would have been taught the orthography of the
Minoan form of ' Aegisthos' unless he had been a personage of international
account.
General Remarks on the Relations and Chronology oe the
Thisbe Intaglios
Apart from the first three bead-seals of the ' flattened cylinder' type,
to be probably referred to the earlier L.M. I. phase, the intaglios of the Thisbe
Treasure must be taken to belong to two inter-related groups. It is hardly
necessary here to repeat the instances of correspondence in detail of the men's
costume as seen on the ' amygdaloid' bead-seals and those of the elongated oval
class—the close-fitting corslet, the tasseled flounces, the triple helm seen on one
or other example. The resemblance presented by the attitude of the youth
who helps the Goddess to rise from the earth seems itself to bespeak the same
hand as that which engraved the prototypes of Oedipus and Orestes on Nos.
11-13. Subordinate features such as the double ground-lines are identical,
as is the shape of the vegetable shoots that rise from them on Nos. 6 and 11.
That these designs are relatively early in the Late Minoan or Mycenaean
series, and cannot be brought down as late as L.M. III., is further evident
from several close comparisons. The men's costume as a whole stands in a
close relation to that seen in the signet-ring from the Fourth Shaft Grave
at Mycenae presenting the scene of combat. The type in which liquid is
poured from a jug into a large handled jar was, as has been shown, in existence
113 W. Max Muller, Die Urheimat der which appears as Ikausu in Assyrian in-
Philister (Mitth. d. vorderasiatischen Ges., scriptions, seems to be intended to represent
1900, pp. 1—13; Asian und Europe, p. 389 n. the Philistine form of the name. G. P.
114 G-. Smith, Hist, of Assurbanipal, p. Moore, art. ' Philistines,' EncycL Bibl., iii.
31; Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, i. p. 322. p. 3317: Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ii.
The name of a contemporary King of Ekron, 148-240.
piece, Aiyi<r0o<;, shows a direct affinity with the most characteristic of old
Cretan and kindred Philistine and Anatolian forms that has been preserved to
us. On the ' London Tablet' of XVIIIth Dynasty date, a wooden slab with
a list of Keftian names for school use,113 it appears in the form Akashau, rightly
compared with the Philistine Achish (LXX. 'A^;^, 'A"/%oi>?). An Ikistusu,
King of Idalion, is mentioned among tributary Cyprian princes on inscriptions
of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Asur-bani-pal,114 though whether the
name reached Cyprus through Mycenaean or, in its adoptive shape, through
later Achaean-Arcadian intrusion may not be easy to determine. But the
occurrence of this in an XVIIIth dynasty record as a prominent Keftian,
otherwise Minoan, name is specially important. Thanks to the tomb-paintings
on the one hand and a series of Minoan vase finds on the other, we can fix
the period of intensive connexion round about 1500 B.C., and as contemporary
with the mature L.M. I. ceramic phase. It seems quite possible that, either
in Crete or in Mainland Greece, some Minoan king of this name held sway
at that time, and, if so, any tragedy with which he was connected must go
up far beyond the date of the Trojan War. It does not seem probable, indeed,
that Egyptian schoolboys would have been taught the orthography of the
Minoan form of ' Aegisthos' unless he had been a personage of international
account.
General Remarks on the Relations and Chronology oe the
Thisbe Intaglios
Apart from the first three bead-seals of the ' flattened cylinder' type,
to be probably referred to the earlier L.M. I. phase, the intaglios of the Thisbe
Treasure must be taken to belong to two inter-related groups. It is hardly
necessary here to repeat the instances of correspondence in detail of the men's
costume as seen on the ' amygdaloid' bead-seals and those of the elongated oval
class—the close-fitting corslet, the tasseled flounces, the triple helm seen on one
or other example. The resemblance presented by the attitude of the youth
who helps the Goddess to rise from the earth seems itself to bespeak the same
hand as that which engraved the prototypes of Oedipus and Orestes on Nos.
11-13. Subordinate features such as the double ground-lines are identical,
as is the shape of the vegetable shoots that rise from them on Nos. 6 and 11.
That these designs are relatively early in the Late Minoan or Mycenaean
series, and cannot be brought down as late as L.M. III., is further evident
from several close comparisons. The men's costume as a whole stands in a
close relation to that seen in the signet-ring from the Fourth Shaft Grave
at Mycenae presenting the scene of combat. The type in which liquid is
poured from a jug into a large handled jar was, as has been shown, in existence
113 W. Max Muller, Die Urheimat der which appears as Ikausu in Assyrian in-
Philister (Mitth. d. vorderasiatischen Ges., scriptions, seems to be intended to represent
1900, pp. 1—13; Asian und Europe, p. 389 n. the Philistine form of the name. G. P.
114 G-. Smith, Hist, of Assurbanipal, p. Moore, art. ' Philistines,' EncycL Bibl., iii.
31; Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, i. p. 322. p. 3317: Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ii.
The name of a contemporary King of Ekron, 148-240.