DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0175
136
THE DESCENDING DIVINITY
Mycenae
tablet
with
descend-
ing God.
De-
scending
deities on
signet-
rings.
Tsountas at Mycenae (Fig. 88).l On this, in a scene containing two female
votaries and an altar, may be discerned what by other analogies can be
identified as an armed divinity—in this case female, as is shown by the white
skin—brought down as elsewhere by due offerings and incantations, and
largely covered by a great 8-shaped body-shield of the Minoan class.
The descending divinity, male as well as female, seems also to
have been a recurring subject of signet-rings of the present class,
which had perhaps a specially sepulchral distinction. It has been already
mentioned that one of the first relics brought to light in recent years
from the site of Knossos was a gold ring belonging to the present category
on which a small armed God, invoked by a female votary, is seen
descending before his obelisk in front of a pillar sanctuary enclosing in its
precincts a sacred grove of fig-trees.2 On two Zakro sealings,3 apparently
impressed by a signet-ring of the same type, a small female figure appears
in the air above the sanctuary, while a ministrant on the other side seems to
be engaged in some ritual function beside an altar with several horns and
a flower-like object.
On a gold ring in the Candia Museum 4 the Goddess, still, apparently,
hovering in the air above a clump of lilies, receives the adoration of
a female ministrant on her left, while to the right another handmaiden
grasps the boughs of the sacred fruit-tree standing within its little enclosure.
On a gold signet, apparently from the Vapheio tomb, now in the Ashmolean
Museum,5 the Goddess, distinguished by her rich dress, seems to be bringing
down by dancing and incantation a boy-God who holds out a bow and
dirk, while, to right, a more plainly attired female kneels beside a jar-like
object, using its rim to rest her head on her arm in a mourning attitude.
The figured design is in this case above a base with horizontal lines marking
the architectonic character of the original.
The descending warrior divinity seen, as on the painted tablet, holding
1 G. Rodemvaldt, Votivpinax aus Mykenai
(Ath. ftlitth., xxxvii, 1912, PL VIII, from a
drawing by Monsieur Gillieron, pere, and p. 129
seqq.). The figure, as Dr. Rodemvaldt points
out, is clearly shown to be female by the re-
maining traces of the white limbs. The tablet
is ri-9 cm. high, and 19 cm. broad. The
figures are about 10-3 cm. high, only slightly
higher than the ladies of the Temple Fresco.
2 P. of M., i, p. 160, Fig. 115, and cf.
A. E., Myc. Tree and Pillar Cull, p. 72 seqq.,
and Fig. 48. In this case the descending
figure wields a spear, but there is no body-
shield.
3 D. G. Hogarth, The Zakro Sealings
{J.H- S., xxii, pp. i, 2, Fig. 1).
4 Martin Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean
Religion, PI. I, 4 and p. 227.
:'- See P. o/M., ii, Pt. II, p. 842, Fig. 557,
and cf. Nilsson, op. tit., PI. I, 3, and p. 296,
Fig. 85.
THE DESCENDING DIVINITY
Mycenae
tablet
with
descend-
ing God.
De-
scending
deities on
signet-
rings.
Tsountas at Mycenae (Fig. 88).l On this, in a scene containing two female
votaries and an altar, may be discerned what by other analogies can be
identified as an armed divinity—in this case female, as is shown by the white
skin—brought down as elsewhere by due offerings and incantations, and
largely covered by a great 8-shaped body-shield of the Minoan class.
The descending divinity, male as well as female, seems also to
have been a recurring subject of signet-rings of the present class,
which had perhaps a specially sepulchral distinction. It has been already
mentioned that one of the first relics brought to light in recent years
from the site of Knossos was a gold ring belonging to the present category
on which a small armed God, invoked by a female votary, is seen
descending before his obelisk in front of a pillar sanctuary enclosing in its
precincts a sacred grove of fig-trees.2 On two Zakro sealings,3 apparently
impressed by a signet-ring of the same type, a small female figure appears
in the air above the sanctuary, while a ministrant on the other side seems to
be engaged in some ritual function beside an altar with several horns and
a flower-like object.
On a gold ring in the Candia Museum 4 the Goddess, still, apparently,
hovering in the air above a clump of lilies, receives the adoration of
a female ministrant on her left, while to the right another handmaiden
grasps the boughs of the sacred fruit-tree standing within its little enclosure.
On a gold signet, apparently from the Vapheio tomb, now in the Ashmolean
Museum,5 the Goddess, distinguished by her rich dress, seems to be bringing
down by dancing and incantation a boy-God who holds out a bow and
dirk, while, to right, a more plainly attired female kneels beside a jar-like
object, using its rim to rest her head on her arm in a mourning attitude.
The figured design is in this case above a base with horizontal lines marking
the architectonic character of the original.
The descending warrior divinity seen, as on the painted tablet, holding
1 G. Rodemvaldt, Votivpinax aus Mykenai
(Ath. ftlitth., xxxvii, 1912, PL VIII, from a
drawing by Monsieur Gillieron, pere, and p. 129
seqq.). The figure, as Dr. Rodemvaldt points
out, is clearly shown to be female by the re-
maining traces of the white limbs. The tablet
is ri-9 cm. high, and 19 cm. broad. The
figures are about 10-3 cm. high, only slightly
higher than the ladies of the Temple Fresco.
2 P. of M., i, p. 160, Fig. 115, and cf.
A. E., Myc. Tree and Pillar Cull, p. 72 seqq.,
and Fig. 48. In this case the descending
figure wields a spear, but there is no body-
shield.
3 D. G. Hogarth, The Zakro Sealings
{J.H- S., xxii, pp. i, 2, Fig. 1).
4 Martin Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean
Religion, PI. I, 4 and p. 227.
:'- See P. o/M., ii, Pt. II, p. 842, Fig. 557,
and cf. Nilsson, op. tit., PI. I, 3, and p. 296,
Fig. 85.