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)

PLUMED IVORY CREST OF SPHINX

415

Fragments of Ivory Sphinx.

One of the finest artistic works found in the Deposit is a curving ivory
plume rising from a knob (Fig. 278) already referred to as almost certainly

representing the
crest of the tiara
that specially char-
acterizes the Mi-
noan Sphinx and
was thence taken
over by the Priest-
f.-'W!' Wk\ kings themselves.1

But the feathers
here are even more
exquisitely ren-
dered than those
of the peacock's
plumes in the paint-
ed relief. For this
naturalistic work a
useful comparison
is supplied by the

very beautiful wing of a small bird from the same Deposit of Ivories
(Fig. 279).

The plume-crest here found answers to the scale of an associated ivory
fragment (Fig. 280) which we may assume to have belonged to the wing

of the same monster. It presents, in fact, along
its upper border the spiral coils that characterize
the wings of the Sphinx2 and Griffin in Minoan
Art. Another piece with part of a curving band
in reliefs may have formed part of the base.

As will be seen from the restored sketch

(Fig. 281), we have here to do with a type of

winged Sphinx of which further illustration has

been supplied by a painted stucco fragment given

Fig. 506, a). An ivory plaque with a similar

Plume
crest and
part of
wing of
ivory
sphinx.

Fig. 278. Plumed Crest of Ivory Sphinx.

Fig. 279. Ivory Wing of
Small Bird.

The

Minoan
Sphinx.

1 Hid., ii, Pt. II, pp. 777-8.

2 For the plumed Sphinx see the ivory
mirror handle from a tomb at Zafer Papoura
(A. E.,Prehistoric Tombs ofKnossos, i, pp. 63,46,
andFig.69. See, too, P. o/M.,ii,'Pt. II,p. 778,

relief of a plumed Sphinx was found at Spata
(Bull, de Corr. Hell., 1878, PI. XVII. See,
too, loc. cit., Fig. 506 b).