DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0099
LIBATIONS POURED OVER ALTAR BLOCKS
455
confronted Daemons are seen pouring libations into what appears to be a
tripod cauldron set over a baetylic column. On a dark steatite lentoid from
the Knossos district, unfortunately a good deal rubbed, lion-headed Genii
of the same late type with beaded manes and
upraised forepaws, as if in the act of adoration,
face a column which seems to support a basin.
On another impressed glass plaque, Fig.
379, A, from the same tomb as Fig-. 379, a, the
ritual act of pouring libations from two ewers is
twice repeated by a pair of Genii over a square-
cut upright altar block. The libations thus poured
curiously recall a rustic ceremony which came to
my personal knowledge in the then Mahometan,
v\'v#wl 'jr^ though Bulgarian speaking, village of Ibrahimovci
'"" " '"' in the Upper Vardar Valley- In a conspicuous
Fig. 380. Impressed Glass Place there, lying 0" its back, I found a Roman
Plaque, Mycenae; Libations altar dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus by
; '' a Duumvir of the neighbouring Colonia of Scupi,
and learnt that in times of drought the villagers, Christian and Mahometan
alike, with a local Bey at the head, went in a body to the stone. It was
then set upright and wine was poured over it, while prayers were offered up
for rain.1
On an impressed glass plaque from another Mycenae tomb2 (Fig. 380)
two confronted Genii pour libations over a heap of stones—evidently a
sacred cairn—in place of the altar blocks on the other. The similar heaps,
on which the little handmaidens stand, on the well-known gold signet from
Mycenae—one of them using it to reach down the fruit of the sacred tree
for the seated Goddess—may well have a religious signification. In another
case the Goddess herself appears seated on a small pile of rocks,-' there
conventionally rendered as three sflobules.
into
tripod
cauldron
over
pillar:
and on
altar
block.
Libations
over
cairn.
note 6, and Fig. i 4, and cf. Tsountas,
UpaKTiKa, 189(1, pp. 29-31). The subjects
of this and Figs. 379 b, 380 were drawn for
me by Monsieur Gillieron, pere, with the kind
permission of their excavator, Dr. Tsountas.
See A. E., Anliniiarian Explorations in
Illyricum, iii (Archaeologia, 18S5), pp. 104-8.
A rock-cut square chamber with dromos,
N. of the Akropolis.
On a green serpentine lentoid: A. E.
Coll. A female adorant stands before the
seated Goddess, and between the two figures
appear the ' horns of Consecration '. This is
the intaglio, then in the Bourguignon Col-
lection at Naples, figured by Furtwangler,
A.G., p. 37, from an imperfect impression.
The 'sacral horns' are there referred to as
probably part of a basket, and the con-
ventional rocks are incompletely given.
455
confronted Daemons are seen pouring libations into what appears to be a
tripod cauldron set over a baetylic column. On a dark steatite lentoid from
the Knossos district, unfortunately a good deal rubbed, lion-headed Genii
of the same late type with beaded manes and
upraised forepaws, as if in the act of adoration,
face a column which seems to support a basin.
On another impressed glass plaque, Fig.
379, A, from the same tomb as Fig-. 379, a, the
ritual act of pouring libations from two ewers is
twice repeated by a pair of Genii over a square-
cut upright altar block. The libations thus poured
curiously recall a rustic ceremony which came to
my personal knowledge in the then Mahometan,
v\'v#wl 'jr^ though Bulgarian speaking, village of Ibrahimovci
'"" " '"' in the Upper Vardar Valley- In a conspicuous
Fig. 380. Impressed Glass Place there, lying 0" its back, I found a Roman
Plaque, Mycenae; Libations altar dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus by
; '' a Duumvir of the neighbouring Colonia of Scupi,
and learnt that in times of drought the villagers, Christian and Mahometan
alike, with a local Bey at the head, went in a body to the stone. It was
then set upright and wine was poured over it, while prayers were offered up
for rain.1
On an impressed glass plaque from another Mycenae tomb2 (Fig. 380)
two confronted Genii pour libations over a heap of stones—evidently a
sacred cairn—in place of the altar blocks on the other. The similar heaps,
on which the little handmaidens stand, on the well-known gold signet from
Mycenae—one of them using it to reach down the fruit of the sacred tree
for the seated Goddess—may well have a religious signification. In another
case the Goddess herself appears seated on a small pile of rocks,-' there
conventionally rendered as three sflobules.
into
tripod
cauldron
over
pillar:
and on
altar
block.
Libations
over
cairn.
note 6, and Fig. i 4, and cf. Tsountas,
UpaKTiKa, 189(1, pp. 29-31). The subjects
of this and Figs. 379 b, 380 were drawn for
me by Monsieur Gillieron, pere, with the kind
permission of their excavator, Dr. Tsountas.
See A. E., Anliniiarian Explorations in
Illyricum, iii (Archaeologia, 18S5), pp. 104-8.
A rock-cut square chamber with dromos,
N. of the Akropolis.
On a green serpentine lentoid: A. E.
Coll. A female adorant stands before the
seated Goddess, and between the two figures
appear the ' horns of Consecration '. This is
the intaglio, then in the Bourguignon Col-
lection at Naples, figured by Furtwangler,
A.G., p. 37, from an imperfect impression.
The 'sacral horns' are there referred to as
probably part of a basket, and the con-
ventional rocks are incompletely given.