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 4,1): Emergence of outer western enceinte, with new illustrations, artistic and religious, of the Middle Minoan Phase (London, 1935)

DERVISH PRIESTS IN ' ORGIASTIC' CULT OF GODDESS 219

intaglio is provided with a beard or ' goatee', which is of a quite exceptional
appearance among advanced Minoan representations.1 The counterpart
to the stsirum-p\a.yer, however, the rustic ' Coryphaeus' who sings open-
mouth in the processional scene, also wears a beard. It seems, moreover, to
have been a usual feature of the earlier stone images—including one
found on the site of Knossos itself2—of the ' proto-Libyan' class, where
indeed it must be regarded as
the reflection of a Libyan fashion.
In the case of the member of
a priestly caste the survival of
this archaic usage need excite no
surprise. It is, indeed, ofa piece
with the occurrence of a stone
libation table of earl)' Nilotic type
in the ' Temple Tomb'.

judging by the group on the
' rhyton ' we may recognize here,
under a characteristic aspect, the
head of a ' dervish ' band such as
may have celebrated the more
orgiastic side of the Minoan cult
in relation to the 'harvest home' festivals. The musical instrument
used by the leader of the rout on the ' rhyton ' is a sistrum of the simpler
and more archaic Egyptian class. This type also occurs as a character
of the Linear Class A and appears on a large tablet from Tylissos3 in
company with the ankh sign, which also had a religious currency in the
Minoan world.

This portrait of a 'dervish' priest, with the neck bent forward as if
hurrying forward, like the ' sistrum '-player at the head of the harvest
rout, supplies a fresh link with an orgiastic side of the cult, upon which the
association of the Minoan Goddess with the cymbals of KybelS on the
Thisbe ring has already thrown some light.'1 The sistnim-player himself
is surely the fellow of the ' Cymbal-player', whose mortal remains, together
1 Anions rare instances ofits occurrence in from Mesara (ilutl., p. 46, Fig. 21, a,b) is ofa

Fig. 1GS). Section or Reliefs on Steatite
Rhyton, Hagia Triada.

the transitional M. M. III-L. M. I epoch
may be mentioned the fragment ofa steatite
'rhyton ' from Knossos with the relief of an
archer.

•- P. o/M., ii, Pt. I, p. 31, Fig. 13, i r, b 2
(and cf. t-). The beard of the shell head

more stubbly kind.

3 See my copy in I. Hatzidaki, Tl'aiu-os
Mivowo/, p. 213, Fig. 19 A'.

1 P. of M., iii, pp: 470-4, and Fig. 328
(P- 47 0-

Orgiastic
side of
Minoan
Cult.