DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0160
5i
4 TRAGEDY OF ATREUS' HOUSE ON THISBE BEAD
SEAL
Historic
scenes of
combat:
Peri-
phetes.
Oedipus
story.
Slaughter
of Kly-
temnestra
is shown attacking a Hon, no clue has been left as to the personage depicted
On a sardonyx amygdaloid from the Third Grave, however, the combat
between two warriors, one falling back on his shield, certainly corresponds
in a remarkable way with the
death of Periphetes, as described
in the Iliad} On the other hand,
two of the large gold beads of
an ' elongated oval' class, from
the Thisb£ Treasure supply,
what is clearly a Minoan version
of the Oedipus story. In the
/T7- ,,r 1 ,.1 Fig. 458. SCENE APPARENTLY ILLUSTRATING THF
one case (Fig. 4 57,_ a) we see the MuRDER 0F Aegisthos and Ki.ytem^rg,™v
hero as a young prince, attacking Orestes, on Gold Bead-seal of Elongated
a Sphinx with a dirk or short C,'ASS: Th,sbL
sword.2 In the other (Fig. 457, b)
we can hardly fail to recognize
the same youthful personage
waylaying Laios in the ' hollow
way' (indicated by the rocks
above), both personages being
armed with bows and arrows.3
That the find-spot of these en-
graved jewels was the harbour
town on the Gulf of Cadmean
Thebesaddsaspecial significance
to their subjects. The anticipation of the story of Oedipus slaying the
Sphinx—a Greek term for'the Strangler'—reminds us that the Kadmeia
themselves looked forth on its ancient abode, the Sphingion Ores. May
not some more primitive form of the monster have haunted those wilds in
the folk-lore of an indigenous Greek population long before it was assimilate
to the Egyptianizing creation of Minoan Art ?
But the third similar intaglio from the same sepulchral deposi
(Fig. 45S) exhibits a subject that seems actually to illustrate the crownin»
Fig. 459. Tragic Scene on Gold Bead-seal
from Thisbe : Photographed from the Object
ITSELF.
1 Homer, //., xv, 645 seqq. See A. E.
(J.N.S., xxxii), pp. 2S3, 2S4 ; and cf. P. ofM.s
iii, Fig. 80; a (facing p. 126). The type was
imitated on a Hellenistic ivory ring-bezel from
Kydonia (lb., Fig. 80, b)
- See P. ofM., iii, pp. 416 seqq. and p. 4rS,
Fig. 282, and cf. A. E., Ring of Ncslor, &c,
and Sepulchral Treasure af Gold S'P'lt'™®
and Bead-seals from ThisM, Boeotia (N
millans, 1925), p. 27 seqq., and Figs. 3^-
' lb., p. 3r seqq. and Figs. 33. 34-^ |n
baseless criticism of the chariot do 3
Arelhuse (1926, p. 63 seqq.) sec belo«,
817, S18.
4 TRAGEDY OF ATREUS' HOUSE ON THISBE BEAD
SEAL
Historic
scenes of
combat:
Peri-
phetes.
Oedipus
story.
Slaughter
of Kly-
temnestra
is shown attacking a Hon, no clue has been left as to the personage depicted
On a sardonyx amygdaloid from the Third Grave, however, the combat
between two warriors, one falling back on his shield, certainly corresponds
in a remarkable way with the
death of Periphetes, as described
in the Iliad} On the other hand,
two of the large gold beads of
an ' elongated oval' class, from
the Thisb£ Treasure supply,
what is clearly a Minoan version
of the Oedipus story. In the
/T7- ,,r 1 ,.1 Fig. 458. SCENE APPARENTLY ILLUSTRATING THF
one case (Fig. 4 57,_ a) we see the MuRDER 0F Aegisthos and Ki.ytem^rg,™v
hero as a young prince, attacking Orestes, on Gold Bead-seal of Elongated
a Sphinx with a dirk or short C,'ASS: Th,sbL
sword.2 In the other (Fig. 457, b)
we can hardly fail to recognize
the same youthful personage
waylaying Laios in the ' hollow
way' (indicated by the rocks
above), both personages being
armed with bows and arrows.3
That the find-spot of these en-
graved jewels was the harbour
town on the Gulf of Cadmean
Thebesaddsaspecial significance
to their subjects. The anticipation of the story of Oedipus slaying the
Sphinx—a Greek term for'the Strangler'—reminds us that the Kadmeia
themselves looked forth on its ancient abode, the Sphingion Ores. May
not some more primitive form of the monster have haunted those wilds in
the folk-lore of an indigenous Greek population long before it was assimilate
to the Egyptianizing creation of Minoan Art ?
But the third similar intaglio from the same sepulchral deposi
(Fig. 45S) exhibits a subject that seems actually to illustrate the crownin»
Fig. 459. Tragic Scene on Gold Bead-seal
from Thisbe : Photographed from the Object
ITSELF.
1 Homer, //., xv, 645 seqq. See A. E.
(J.N.S., xxxii), pp. 2S3, 2S4 ; and cf. P. ofM.s
iii, Fig. 80; a (facing p. 126). The type was
imitated on a Hellenistic ivory ring-bezel from
Kydonia (lb., Fig. 80, b)
- See P. ofM., iii, pp. 416 seqq. and p. 4rS,
Fig. 282, and cf. A. E., Ring of Ncslor, &c,
and Sepulchral Treasure af Gold S'P'lt'™®
and Bead-seals from ThisM, Boeotia (N
millans, 1925), p. 27 seqq., and Figs. 3^-
' lb., p. 3r seqq. and Figs. 33. 34-^ |n
baseless criticism of the chariot do 3
Arelhuse (1926, p. 63 seqq.) sec belo«,
817, S18.