DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0161
GENUINENESS OF THE THISBE JEWELS 5,5
tragedy of the house of Atreus.1 The warrior here—equivalent to Orestes the and
avenger of his father, the murdered Agamemnon—has clearly already dealt a A'£islhos
mortal stroke at Aigisthos—seen tumbling backwards—and hastens to.dis- Orestes,
patch Klytemnestra.who hurries, richly bedizened, to the left, endeavouring to
escape, and in an attitude of abject fright. The scene, naive in its composition,
but full of violent action, itself finds no echo in the later Greek version of the
same episode, as depicted, for instance, on a series of red-figure vases. But its
correspondence with an outstanding tragedy of ancient tradition is so close
that it is difficult not to recognize here an actual record of it by the Minoan
enoraver. The rich costume of the woman itself proclaims a personage of
the highest rank, and the undignified overthrow of her male partner fits in
well with the Homeric epithet of dvaXxis—the 'impotent' or 'craven'—applied
to Aigisthos. The intaglio itself forms a pendant to the other pair, equally
illustrative of gestes belonging to the heroic cycle of early Greece.
Evidences of Genuineness of Thisbe Jewels.
The remarkable character of the latter subject, coupled with those pre-
senting" a hero to be naturally identified with Oedipus, has probably done
more than anything else to induce certain critics—who in no case had
examined the originals—to throw doubt on the whole series of the Thisbe
jewels. So persistent, indeed, has been this attitude that, though in the
course of this Work controversy has, where possible, been avoided, a few
words may not be out of place.
My own opinion—at the back of which stand at any rate some sixty
years of expertise in ancient seals and intaglios, and an exhaustive acquain-
tance with Minoan artistic work in all its manifestations—has never wavered
as to the entire genuineness of the series as an indivisible whole. This view
was fully endorsed, as the result of independent study, by such a prominent
authority on Minoan remains as the late Mr. R. B. Seager.2 But the genuine-
ness of the objects, as pointed out above, subsequently received signal con-
firmation from the interesting discovery that what had at first appeared to be
an unique scene of ritual pouring from an ewer into a two-handled jar of a
special shape, presented by one of the Thisbe bead-seals, was paralleled by a
sealing brought to light eight years later from a palatial deposit of Knossos-;l
For a fuller account see lb., p. 38 seqq., and cf..A. E., jlingoflfestor, 4rV. (Macmillans,
and Figs. 3s, 39. IQ,5j an<j J, n. S. xlv), pp. 1S-20. How, too,
"- Their genuineness was independently con- could a forger have known of the Boeotian
firmed by the well-known archaeologist, Mr. touch in the spear-shaft with ribbon-like attach-
John Marshall. menl5 [pj>. tit., p. 26, Fig. 29)? Where indeed
" See above, pp. 451, 452, and p. 452, n. 1 : did he acquire the subtle knowledge that the
Iv""'" M ill
tragedy of the house of Atreus.1 The warrior here—equivalent to Orestes the and
avenger of his father, the murdered Agamemnon—has clearly already dealt a A'£islhos
mortal stroke at Aigisthos—seen tumbling backwards—and hastens to.dis- Orestes,
patch Klytemnestra.who hurries, richly bedizened, to the left, endeavouring to
escape, and in an attitude of abject fright. The scene, naive in its composition,
but full of violent action, itself finds no echo in the later Greek version of the
same episode, as depicted, for instance, on a series of red-figure vases. But its
correspondence with an outstanding tragedy of ancient tradition is so close
that it is difficult not to recognize here an actual record of it by the Minoan
enoraver. The rich costume of the woman itself proclaims a personage of
the highest rank, and the undignified overthrow of her male partner fits in
well with the Homeric epithet of dvaXxis—the 'impotent' or 'craven'—applied
to Aigisthos. The intaglio itself forms a pendant to the other pair, equally
illustrative of gestes belonging to the heroic cycle of early Greece.
Evidences of Genuineness of Thisbe Jewels.
The remarkable character of the latter subject, coupled with those pre-
senting" a hero to be naturally identified with Oedipus, has probably done
more than anything else to induce certain critics—who in no case had
examined the originals—to throw doubt on the whole series of the Thisbe
jewels. So persistent, indeed, has been this attitude that, though in the
course of this Work controversy has, where possible, been avoided, a few
words may not be out of place.
My own opinion—at the back of which stand at any rate some sixty
years of expertise in ancient seals and intaglios, and an exhaustive acquain-
tance with Minoan artistic work in all its manifestations—has never wavered
as to the entire genuineness of the series as an indivisible whole. This view
was fully endorsed, as the result of independent study, by such a prominent
authority on Minoan remains as the late Mr. R. B. Seager.2 But the genuine-
ness of the objects, as pointed out above, subsequently received signal con-
firmation from the interesting discovery that what had at first appeared to be
an unique scene of ritual pouring from an ewer into a two-handled jar of a
special shape, presented by one of the Thisbe bead-seals, was paralleled by a
sealing brought to light eight years later from a palatial deposit of Knossos-;l
For a fuller account see lb., p. 38 seqq., and cf..A. E., jlingoflfestor, 4rV. (Macmillans,
and Figs. 3s, 39. IQ,5j an<j J, n. S. xlv), pp. 1S-20. How, too,
"- Their genuineness was independently con- could a forger have known of the Boeotian
firmed by the well-known archaeologist, Mr. touch in the spear-shaft with ribbon-like attach-
John Marshall. menl5 [pj>. tit., p. 26, Fig. 29)? Where indeed
" See above, pp. 451, 452, and p. 452, n. 1 : did he acquire the subtle knowledge that the
Iv""'" M ill