Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 3): The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace (London, 1930)

1.12

EPIC RECORDS OF MINOAN METAL INLAYS

before our era—even in the case of the bowls that show a partial overlaying
of another metal with a gold plate—does not supply by any means an
adequate source for the varied details and the delicate nuances of con-

Fig. 87. Frieze of Lilies, Phylakopi (restored) ; M. M. Ill Work.

Implied
know-
ledge of
Minoan
originals.

trasted effects in the metal inlays, such as we find in the Homeric descrip-
tion of the Shield of Achilles, forged by Hephaestos.

What other Art, indeed, could have rendered such a scene as that of
the vineyard there described ? The impression conveyed by the poet's
words is that of one who had actually in view some great work of intarsia
in metal executed by similar methods.

' Also he set therein a vineyard teeming plenteously with clusters,
wrought fair in gold : black were the grapes, but the vines hung throughout
on silver poles. And around it he ran a ditch of cyanus, and round that
a fence of tin.'2 ..

The contrast here of the gold, the black grapes, and the silver poles
curiously recalls the effect produced on some of the above designs by the
skilful introduction of ruddy gold, pale electrum, and niello in the details. In
the case of the ploughed field, described shortly before, we have the same
suggestion of the dark niello, which served both for the background and details
of the inlaid dagger-blades, and here, again, it is set off by details in gold.

1 Iliad xviii. 562-5 (Lang, Leaf and Myers'
translation, p. 383). It must be noted,
however, that tin, though used by the Minoans

for their bronze alloys, has not as yet been
ascertained to exist as a separate element
in the Minoan inlays.