DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0066
64 ARTHUR EVANS
speaking, the second scene of this composition. The whole subject is well
shown in Monsieur Gillieron's copy of the seal impression enlarged to four
diameters, Fig. 55.
The Youthful Couple restored to Life.
Here we see, in profile, a youth, whose long locks fall behind his shoulders
and over his breast, girt with the usual Minoan loin-clothing and with traces
of footgear, but otherwise naked, standing in front of a woman with his
visible arm half lifted, as in the act of greeting her. The lady herself raises
both hands in a much more accentuated attitude of surprise and delight, as
of one who had seen her spouse unexpectedly restored to her. As in the case
of the Goddess and her companion, the somewhat square rendering of the
outline of the shoulders suggests a sleeved jacket such as the elegant dames
wear in the Miniature Fresco of Knossos, and is so depicted in the restored
coloured drawing (PI. V). The bosom, as in the other case, was open or
only covered by a diaphanous chemise, and the flounced skirts are decidedly
short, reaching only a little below the knee, a fashion that prevailed in the
earliest Late Minoan phase.59
The attitudes and gestures are so natural and speaking as only to admit
of one obvious interpretation. We see here, reunited by the life-giving power
of the Goddess, symbolised by the chrysalises and butterflies, a young couple
whom death had parted, and of whom the female personage was clearly the
earlier to reach the Under-world. That to the artist who composed the whole
design the episode formed part of a definite story, whether traditional or
taken from contemporary life, can hardly be doubted. What we see here
indeed, taken in connexion with the scene of initiation below, must rather be
interpreted as the permanent reunion in the Land of the Blest of a wedded
pair by the divine grace, than as an attempt, like that of Orpheus, to rescue
his Eurydice from the shades or the all too brief respite gained by Protesilaos
to visit Laodamia.
But in each case the dramatic moment where one of a loving pair rejoins
the other in another world itself largely corresponds, and the spouse on the
ring might well exclaim with Wordsworth's Laodamia :
' No spectre greets me, no vain Shadow this;
Come, blooming hero, place thee by my side,
Give, on this well-known couch, one nuptial kiss
To me this day a second time thy bride !'
It is worth observing that both these representative Classical examples
of at least a temporary triumph over Hades—Protesilaos as well as Orpheus—
were themselves connected with the Thracian race. Through its Phrygian
branch, this was largely affected by old religious conceptions which extended
in the other direction from Anatolia to Minoan Crete—ideas of a Mother God-
dess with corybantic worshippers and ecstatic votaries and of a favourite
" Inherited from the last Middle Minoan fashion. See P. of M., i. p. 680.
speaking, the second scene of this composition. The whole subject is well
shown in Monsieur Gillieron's copy of the seal impression enlarged to four
diameters, Fig. 55.
The Youthful Couple restored to Life.
Here we see, in profile, a youth, whose long locks fall behind his shoulders
and over his breast, girt with the usual Minoan loin-clothing and with traces
of footgear, but otherwise naked, standing in front of a woman with his
visible arm half lifted, as in the act of greeting her. The lady herself raises
both hands in a much more accentuated attitude of surprise and delight, as
of one who had seen her spouse unexpectedly restored to her. As in the case
of the Goddess and her companion, the somewhat square rendering of the
outline of the shoulders suggests a sleeved jacket such as the elegant dames
wear in the Miniature Fresco of Knossos, and is so depicted in the restored
coloured drawing (PI. V). The bosom, as in the other case, was open or
only covered by a diaphanous chemise, and the flounced skirts are decidedly
short, reaching only a little below the knee, a fashion that prevailed in the
earliest Late Minoan phase.59
The attitudes and gestures are so natural and speaking as only to admit
of one obvious interpretation. We see here, reunited by the life-giving power
of the Goddess, symbolised by the chrysalises and butterflies, a young couple
whom death had parted, and of whom the female personage was clearly the
earlier to reach the Under-world. That to the artist who composed the whole
design the episode formed part of a definite story, whether traditional or
taken from contemporary life, can hardly be doubted. What we see here
indeed, taken in connexion with the scene of initiation below, must rather be
interpreted as the permanent reunion in the Land of the Blest of a wedded
pair by the divine grace, than as an attempt, like that of Orpheus, to rescue
his Eurydice from the shades or the all too brief respite gained by Protesilaos
to visit Laodamia.
But in each case the dramatic moment where one of a loving pair rejoins
the other in another world itself largely corresponds, and the spouse on the
ring might well exclaim with Wordsworth's Laodamia :
' No spectre greets me, no vain Shadow this;
Come, blooming hero, place thee by my side,
Give, on this well-known couch, one nuptial kiss
To me this day a second time thy bride !'
It is worth observing that both these representative Classical examples
of at least a temporary triumph over Hades—Protesilaos as well as Orpheus—
were themselves connected with the Thracian race. Through its Phrygian
branch, this was largely affected by old religious conceptions which extended
in the other direction from Anatolia to Minoan Crete—ideas of a Mother God-
dess with corybantic worshippers and ecstatic votaries and of a favourite
" Inherited from the last Middle Minoan fashion. See P. of M., i. p. 680.