DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0062
60 ARTHUR EVANS
designed solely for funereal use, and were accompanied with Temains of the
beam, consisting of tubes of the same thin gold plate ' through which was
undoubtedly stuck a wooden stick.' 45
Schliemann, though, curiously enough, he failed to recognise the relation-
ship between the butterflies shown and the human soul, rightly regarded the
scales themselves as symbolic of the same idea as that illustrated in the
painted designs of Egyptian tombs,46 where scales appear ' in which are weighed
the good and bad deeds of the deceased.' In that case Thoth and Anubis
weigh the heart of the dead man against the feather of Truth. Schliemann
also recalled the passage in the Iliad where Zeus weighs the two ' fates ' (K%>e)
of Achilles and Hektor against one another in a golden balance 47—a practice
of which we have repeated illustrations in vase paintings. In these cases
the ' fates ' appear as diminutive human beings, generally depicted with their
arms and armour, though they are not unfrequently winged. But this form
of weighing, though also known as if-y^oc-Tao-ta,48 refers to the doom of the
living, not to the judgment of departed spirits, and is without the ethical
element that characterises the Egyptian rite. This moral side, however, appears
already in Old Testament allusions, as when Job exclaims,' Let me be weighed
in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity,'49 and in the writing
on the wall, ' Tekel, thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.' 50
The exact channels through which the same idea passed into Christian
iconography are not recorded, but we must certainly look on the Oriental
side. As ' Commander-in-chief '—'An%(o-Tn«n)7o?—of the hosts of Heaven,
the Archangel Michael has much in common with the Babylonian Light-God,
and the Celestial Scales were in fact regarded as the ' House of Shamash '50°
who was also considered the giver of all law and the supreme judge. Direct
evidence of the belief in the weighing the souls of the dead is wanting,506
45 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 197, Fig. 303; means the 'soul' or 'life.' Can this be
restored by G. Karo in Fimmen, Kretisch- distinguished from the Homeric K^p, which
mykenische Kultur (1921) p. 124, Fig. 116 we find equated with ipvxv ? But, if they
(see Fig. 40). Another beam and pair of are practically the same, the parallel with
scales with embossed rosettes was also found the Egyptian heart-weighing is too close
(Fig. 302). not to indicate a suggestion from that side.
46 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 198. Schuch- 48 A lost play of Aeschylos was so called
hardt, ScMiemann'a Excavs., p. 206, would (Fr. 263 : Plut. de aud. poet., p. 17 a). In
simply see in the scales ' a gift to the this Thetis and E6s weigh the lives of
worthy housewife in her grave, just as Achilles and Memn6n. The actual tyvxa~
necessary as sword and drinking cup to the (ttrttjs is usually Hermes.
maninhis.' But the household objects, such 49 Job. xxxi. 6.
as the bronze knife, alabaster ' spoon ' and 50 Daniel, v. 27. This, of course, is a free
gold box and cup placed in this grave, translation, but the reference of Mene and
were articles really used, not flimsy funereal Tekel to tnina and shekel implies weighing,
fabrics. Balances for real use are, indeed, 5°° Sidney Smith, J.R.A.S., Jan. 1925, 49.
a known feature of sepulchral inventories. 506 Meissner, indeed {Babylonien und
Bronze beams of balances were found in Assyrim, II. 410) says ' die babylonisehe
two Early Sikel graves (P. Orsi, Boll, di Wage gait jedenfalls als Totenwage.'
Paletnologia Italiana, S. ii., viii. (1892), Jeremias argues that since the Balance in
p. 31 and PI. V. 7). They are also a feature the signs of Zodiac represents the idea of
of Anglo-Saxon graves. justice, it must be identified with the balance
47 II., xxii. 209-213. Krjp, the heart (the for weighing the souls of the dead. Mr.
epic form of Ktap), in its primitive con- Sidney Smith, of the Oriental Department
eeption (ef. Tylor, Prim. Cult, ii. p. 431, of the British Museum, to whose kindness I
etc.) as found still among savage races, owe this information, takes a cautious view.
designed solely for funereal use, and were accompanied with Temains of the
beam, consisting of tubes of the same thin gold plate ' through which was
undoubtedly stuck a wooden stick.' 45
Schliemann, though, curiously enough, he failed to recognise the relation-
ship between the butterflies shown and the human soul, rightly regarded the
scales themselves as symbolic of the same idea as that illustrated in the
painted designs of Egyptian tombs,46 where scales appear ' in which are weighed
the good and bad deeds of the deceased.' In that case Thoth and Anubis
weigh the heart of the dead man against the feather of Truth. Schliemann
also recalled the passage in the Iliad where Zeus weighs the two ' fates ' (K%>e)
of Achilles and Hektor against one another in a golden balance 47—a practice
of which we have repeated illustrations in vase paintings. In these cases
the ' fates ' appear as diminutive human beings, generally depicted with their
arms and armour, though they are not unfrequently winged. But this form
of weighing, though also known as if-y^oc-Tao-ta,48 refers to the doom of the
living, not to the judgment of departed spirits, and is without the ethical
element that characterises the Egyptian rite. This moral side, however, appears
already in Old Testament allusions, as when Job exclaims,' Let me be weighed
in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity,'49 and in the writing
on the wall, ' Tekel, thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.' 50
The exact channels through which the same idea passed into Christian
iconography are not recorded, but we must certainly look on the Oriental
side. As ' Commander-in-chief '—'An%(o-Tn«n)7o?—of the hosts of Heaven,
the Archangel Michael has much in common with the Babylonian Light-God,
and the Celestial Scales were in fact regarded as the ' House of Shamash '50°
who was also considered the giver of all law and the supreme judge. Direct
evidence of the belief in the weighing the souls of the dead is wanting,506
45 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 197, Fig. 303; means the 'soul' or 'life.' Can this be
restored by G. Karo in Fimmen, Kretisch- distinguished from the Homeric K^p, which
mykenische Kultur (1921) p. 124, Fig. 116 we find equated with ipvxv ? But, if they
(see Fig. 40). Another beam and pair of are practically the same, the parallel with
scales with embossed rosettes was also found the Egyptian heart-weighing is too close
(Fig. 302). not to indicate a suggestion from that side.
46 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 198. Schuch- 48 A lost play of Aeschylos was so called
hardt, ScMiemann'a Excavs., p. 206, would (Fr. 263 : Plut. de aud. poet., p. 17 a). In
simply see in the scales ' a gift to the this Thetis and E6s weigh the lives of
worthy housewife in her grave, just as Achilles and Memn6n. The actual tyvxa~
necessary as sword and drinking cup to the (ttrttjs is usually Hermes.
maninhis.' But the household objects, such 49 Job. xxxi. 6.
as the bronze knife, alabaster ' spoon ' and 50 Daniel, v. 27. This, of course, is a free
gold box and cup placed in this grave, translation, but the reference of Mene and
were articles really used, not flimsy funereal Tekel to tnina and shekel implies weighing,
fabrics. Balances for real use are, indeed, 5°° Sidney Smith, J.R.A.S., Jan. 1925, 49.
a known feature of sepulchral inventories. 506 Meissner, indeed {Babylonien und
Bronze beams of balances were found in Assyrim, II. 410) says ' die babylonisehe
two Early Sikel graves (P. Orsi, Boll, di Wage gait jedenfalls als Totenwage.'
Paletnologia Italiana, S. ii., viii. (1892), Jeremias argues that since the Balance in
p. 31 and PI. V. 7). They are also a feature the signs of Zodiac represents the idea of
of Anglo-Saxon graves. justice, it must be identified with the balance
47 II., xxii. 209-213. Krjp, the heart (the for weighing the souls of the dead. Mr.
epic form of Ktap), in its primitive con- Sidney Smith, of the Oriental Department
eeption (ef. Tylor, Prim. Cult, ii. p. 431, of the British Museum, to whose kindness I
etc.) as found still among savage races, owe this information, takes a cautious view.