DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0083
44 COURSING BULL OF FUNEREAL SYMBOLISM
reappears in the remarkable Temple-Tomb of a Knossian Priest-kino-
described in the last Section of Part II. The idea of the Great Mother
presiding over the Underworld itself receives detailed illustration on the
' Ring of Nestor'.
Bulls of Funereal Sacrifice depicted as Coursing in Arena.
Offertory But the painted designs on the Sarcophagus lead us a step further,
pictectas Once more, as on the bead-seal, Fig. 23 above, we are brought into
coursing connexion with the sports of the Minoan bull-ring, to which the Goddess
in arena. r & uws
herself stood so near. On the other side of the Sarcophagus, correspondino-
to that from which the scene shown in Fig. 27 is excerpted, two male
votaries in sacrificial skins, following one who bears a miniature ship, are
seen carrying small figures of bulls such as in this case we should have
expected to see trussed like the victim on the table. Instead of this they
are depicted at full gallop, with upraised tails, as if taken over, without
the context, from the Minoan Corrida (Fig. 28).1 It is the scheme long-
familiarized to us by the Tiryns fresco (Fig. 29), repeated on the wall-
paintings of Knossos and the small reliefs and seal-impressions, and well
illustrated by the bronze figurine of the galloping bull. It recurs moreover
in the case of the silver figure of a similar bull—without the acrobatic
adjunct of the other—borne on a salver by a tributary of Keftiu in a wall-
painting of the tomb of User-Amon 2 that may well have been of a sacral
character. In other words, we have here a symbolic attitude taken over
owing to religious motives. The bull of sacrifice, in fact, is a bull of the
arena. The mortal stroke itself was in all probability that dealt, as
shown on the Thisbe: intaglio, by a Minoan matador, and we may suppose
that the victim was trussed and first transported with the lethal blade
still sticking in its cervical vertebrae. The appearance of these symbolic
coursing figures of bulls in the hands of the votaries seems to point to a
preliminary function of ceremonial sports, held in honour of the departed
dignitary but under the higher auspices of the Minoan Goddess, whose
shrine—at times adorned by her Double Axe emblems—looked down upon
the course.
1 Cf. P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, p. 650 (Figs. 414, d, Might Triada, Man. Ant., 1908, PI- I. a"<j
415, from which Figs. 28, 29 are taken), and p. 2S, Fig. 7, but the religious reason 01
note. The identity of type with the coursing this offertory form had escaped him.
bulls of scenes of the arena had already been ! See P. of M.. ii, Ft. II, PP- 64S, "49'
noted by Dr. R. Paribeiii, // Sarcofhago iipinto Fig. 413 a, and p. 738, Fig. .471'.
reappears in the remarkable Temple-Tomb of a Knossian Priest-kino-
described in the last Section of Part II. The idea of the Great Mother
presiding over the Underworld itself receives detailed illustration on the
' Ring of Nestor'.
Bulls of Funereal Sacrifice depicted as Coursing in Arena.
Offertory But the painted designs on the Sarcophagus lead us a step further,
pictectas Once more, as on the bead-seal, Fig. 23 above, we are brought into
coursing connexion with the sports of the Minoan bull-ring, to which the Goddess
in arena. r & uws
herself stood so near. On the other side of the Sarcophagus, correspondino-
to that from which the scene shown in Fig. 27 is excerpted, two male
votaries in sacrificial skins, following one who bears a miniature ship, are
seen carrying small figures of bulls such as in this case we should have
expected to see trussed like the victim on the table. Instead of this they
are depicted at full gallop, with upraised tails, as if taken over, without
the context, from the Minoan Corrida (Fig. 28).1 It is the scheme long-
familiarized to us by the Tiryns fresco (Fig. 29), repeated on the wall-
paintings of Knossos and the small reliefs and seal-impressions, and well
illustrated by the bronze figurine of the galloping bull. It recurs moreover
in the case of the silver figure of a similar bull—without the acrobatic
adjunct of the other—borne on a salver by a tributary of Keftiu in a wall-
painting of the tomb of User-Amon 2 that may well have been of a sacral
character. In other words, we have here a symbolic attitude taken over
owing to religious motives. The bull of sacrifice, in fact, is a bull of the
arena. The mortal stroke itself was in all probability that dealt, as
shown on the Thisbe: intaglio, by a Minoan matador, and we may suppose
that the victim was trussed and first transported with the lethal blade
still sticking in its cervical vertebrae. The appearance of these symbolic
coursing figures of bulls in the hands of the votaries seems to point to a
preliminary function of ceremonial sports, held in honour of the departed
dignitary but under the higher auspices of the Minoan Goddess, whose
shrine—at times adorned by her Double Axe emblems—looked down upon
the course.
1 Cf. P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, p. 650 (Figs. 414, d, Might Triada, Man. Ant., 1908, PI- I. a"<j
415, from which Figs. 28, 29 are taken), and p. 2S, Fig. 7, but the religious reason 01
note. The identity of type with the coursing this offertory form had escaped him.
bulls of scenes of the arena had already been ! See P. of M.. ii, Ft. II, PP- 64S, "49'
noted by Dr. R. Paribeiii, // Sarcofhago iipinto Fig. 413 a, and p. 738, Fig. .471'.