DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0068
ARTHUR EVANS
three-footed bench seen on an agate lentoid from a chamber tomb at Mycenae,61
and which there serves as a kind of ' operating table,' a fat boar being laid
upon it belly upwards for the dissection of its entrails by a priestly ' haruspex.'
Some mystic association may therefore have attached itself to what in the
present case seems to have simply served as a kind of couch for the great
beast. The special association of the Minoan Goddess, anticipating Rhea,
with the lion, is so fully established that it needs no detailed illustration here.
Lions were her special companions and guardians, and repeatedly appear in
pairs placed as supporters in heraldic schemes, where she is often replaced
by her pillar form. On a recently
discovered signet-ring from Amari,62
west of Ida (Fig. 56), the Goddess is
seen seated on a broad base—which,
however, is of solid construction—and
upon the outer edge of this on either
side a lion rests his fore-legs. At
times she is accompanied by only a
single animal, either walking beside
her, as on a seal-impression from the
Temple Repositories 63 at Knossos, or
up-reared in front of her, as on another from the Domestic Quarter.64
The frequent appearance of. Uons on the Early Minoan ivory seals,65
which have early Nilotic and Egyptian associations, tends to show that it
was from that side that the knowledge of these animals made its way into
Crete. The peculiar place which lions held in the ancient Egyptian mythology
also seems to have affected Cretan religion. The dark tunnel of the Under-
world through which the Sun passed between nightfall and dawn was watched
at either gate by a lion guardian,66 and it is thus that in a well-known Egyptian
symbol the two lions—' Yesterday ' and ' To-day '—appear seated back to
back on either side of the Sun's disk, which rests in the bosom of the hills. An
interesting indication that the lion in Minoan Crete was also regarded as a
guardian of the dead is afforded by one of the early seals in question, from a
tholos tomb on the borders of Mesara, the upper part of which is carved in the
form of a couchant lion seated above a figure of a man in a crouched position
corresponding with the contracted attitude of the dead in this class of primitive
Fig. 56.—Signet Ring from Amari.
" Tsountas, 'E,j>. 'hpx-, 1888, PI. X. 36
(upside down), and p. 179. Furtwangler,
Ant. Gemmert, PI. II. 18. Furtwangler
describes the subject as a sacrifice (' Opfer').
Tsountas speaks of the personage with the
knife as ' a woman.' There can be no
reasonable doubt, however, in view of
later discoveries, that the ' operator ' is a
long-robed Minoan (or Mycenaean) priest
who here acts as ' haruspex'—an interesting
anticipation of the Etruscan ritual. A
bull is seen the right way up on a stand
of a somewhat similar kind on a gem in the
Berlin Museum with a sacrificial sword
stuck into its shoulder (Furtwangler, Ant.
Gem., PI. II. 22). It looks as if we had
here the preparation for the haruspicial
ceremony.
62 The ring is of bronze, plated, and is
in the Rethymno Museum.
63 P. ofM., i. p. S05, Fig. 363 a.
6i Unpublished.
65 Many examples of such seals are given
in Prof. Droop's recently published trans-
lation of Dr. Xanthudides' work, The
Vaulted Tombs of Mesara.
66 See E. A. Wallis-Budge, The Gods
of the Egyptians, ii. pp. 359-361.
three-footed bench seen on an agate lentoid from a chamber tomb at Mycenae,61
and which there serves as a kind of ' operating table,' a fat boar being laid
upon it belly upwards for the dissection of its entrails by a priestly ' haruspex.'
Some mystic association may therefore have attached itself to what in the
present case seems to have simply served as a kind of couch for the great
beast. The special association of the Minoan Goddess, anticipating Rhea,
with the lion, is so fully established that it needs no detailed illustration here.
Lions were her special companions and guardians, and repeatedly appear in
pairs placed as supporters in heraldic schemes, where she is often replaced
by her pillar form. On a recently
discovered signet-ring from Amari,62
west of Ida (Fig. 56), the Goddess is
seen seated on a broad base—which,
however, is of solid construction—and
upon the outer edge of this on either
side a lion rests his fore-legs. At
times she is accompanied by only a
single animal, either walking beside
her, as on a seal-impression from the
Temple Repositories 63 at Knossos, or
up-reared in front of her, as on another from the Domestic Quarter.64
The frequent appearance of. Uons on the Early Minoan ivory seals,65
which have early Nilotic and Egyptian associations, tends to show that it
was from that side that the knowledge of these animals made its way into
Crete. The peculiar place which lions held in the ancient Egyptian mythology
also seems to have affected Cretan religion. The dark tunnel of the Under-
world through which the Sun passed between nightfall and dawn was watched
at either gate by a lion guardian,66 and it is thus that in a well-known Egyptian
symbol the two lions—' Yesterday ' and ' To-day '—appear seated back to
back on either side of the Sun's disk, which rests in the bosom of the hills. An
interesting indication that the lion in Minoan Crete was also regarded as a
guardian of the dead is afforded by one of the early seals in question, from a
tholos tomb on the borders of Mesara, the upper part of which is carved in the
form of a couchant lion seated above a figure of a man in a crouched position
corresponding with the contracted attitude of the dead in this class of primitive
Fig. 56.—Signet Ring from Amari.
" Tsountas, 'E,j>. 'hpx-, 1888, PI. X. 36
(upside down), and p. 179. Furtwangler,
Ant. Gemmert, PI. II. 18. Furtwangler
describes the subject as a sacrifice (' Opfer').
Tsountas speaks of the personage with the
knife as ' a woman.' There can be no
reasonable doubt, however, in view of
later discoveries, that the ' operator ' is a
long-robed Minoan (or Mycenaean) priest
who here acts as ' haruspex'—an interesting
anticipation of the Etruscan ritual. A
bull is seen the right way up on a stand
of a somewhat similar kind on a gem in the
Berlin Museum with a sacrificial sword
stuck into its shoulder (Furtwangler, Ant.
Gem., PI. II. 22). It looks as if we had
here the preparation for the haruspicial
ceremony.
62 The ring is of bronze, plated, and is
in the Rethymno Museum.
63 P. ofM., i. p. S05, Fig. 363 a.
6i Unpublished.
65 Many examples of such seals are given
in Prof. Droop's recently published trans-
lation of Dr. Xanthudides' work, The
Vaulted Tombs of Mesara.
66 See E. A. Wallis-Budge, The Gods
of the Egyptians, ii. pp. 359-361.