DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0177
LION LEAPING ON QUARRY
lion's body rests on the ground. The lion itself wears a harness and
represents a hunting animal from some royal Oriental ' kennel'. The general
associations of this object with Tell-el-Amarna would point to an early
Fig. 479. Lion with Hind-feet on
Ground bearing down Bull. Gold
bead-seal : thisbe.
Fig. 480. Lion with Hind-feet on Ground
BRINGING DOWN GALLOPING GAZELLE. DaGGER-
blade: Mycenae.
Fourteenth-Century date, but the work, both in its strength as well as in
certain details, preserves a much earlier, Sumerian tradition.
It is clear that exceptional examples exist among Minoan designs, both in
intaglio and small relief, in which the lion makes his onslaught on the quarry
with the hind-legs still resting on the ground. This attitude is seen on a gold
bead-seal of the ' flat cylinder' type from Thisbe (Fig. 479),l as well as on
a fine onyx lentoid from the Vapheio Tomb.2 It recurs again on the Mycenae
dagger-blade (Fig. 480) and in one of the late reliefs on an ivory mirror
handle from Enkomi. In such cases the possible reaction of Oriental models
cannot be excluded, though there may well have been a parallel indigenous
tradition. Where, as on the Thisbe bead (Fig. 479), or, again, on the
Mycenae dagger-blade, the whole forepart of the quarry is borne down by
the lion's weight, the scheme may still fairly be regarded as at any rate
Minoizing. In the true Oriental version the lion's weight acts rather
as a counterpoise to that of his victim.
But there can be no doubt that the more characteristic Minoan form of
the group is that in which the lion makes his attack by leaping on it from
above, thus throwing- his full weight on his victim. And this, as we have
seen, has no counterpart in the lands influenced by the cylinder technique.
On the other hand, we have seen that on Cretan soil the part later
played by the King of Beasts had already been taken at much earlier date
See, too, J\ of M., iii, p. i>j, Fig. 75. cates hardly later than L. M. I a.
This intaglio belongs to the earlier Thisbe ' 'E</>. 'ApX., 1SS9, Pl.X, iS.
group as the 'flat cylinder' form itself indi-
Minoan
type with
lion's
hind-legs
on
ground.
Examples
of tra-
ditional
Cretan
type of
lion
springing
on quar-
ry's back.
lion's body rests on the ground. The lion itself wears a harness and
represents a hunting animal from some royal Oriental ' kennel'. The general
associations of this object with Tell-el-Amarna would point to an early
Fig. 479. Lion with Hind-feet on
Ground bearing down Bull. Gold
bead-seal : thisbe.
Fig. 480. Lion with Hind-feet on Ground
BRINGING DOWN GALLOPING GAZELLE. DaGGER-
blade: Mycenae.
Fourteenth-Century date, but the work, both in its strength as well as in
certain details, preserves a much earlier, Sumerian tradition.
It is clear that exceptional examples exist among Minoan designs, both in
intaglio and small relief, in which the lion makes his onslaught on the quarry
with the hind-legs still resting on the ground. This attitude is seen on a gold
bead-seal of the ' flat cylinder' type from Thisbe (Fig. 479),l as well as on
a fine onyx lentoid from the Vapheio Tomb.2 It recurs again on the Mycenae
dagger-blade (Fig. 480) and in one of the late reliefs on an ivory mirror
handle from Enkomi. In such cases the possible reaction of Oriental models
cannot be excluded, though there may well have been a parallel indigenous
tradition. Where, as on the Thisbe bead (Fig. 479), or, again, on the
Mycenae dagger-blade, the whole forepart of the quarry is borne down by
the lion's weight, the scheme may still fairly be regarded as at any rate
Minoizing. In the true Oriental version the lion's weight acts rather
as a counterpoise to that of his victim.
But there can be no doubt that the more characteristic Minoan form of
the group is that in which the lion makes his attack by leaping on it from
above, thus throwing- his full weight on his victim. And this, as we have
seen, has no counterpart in the lands influenced by the cylinder technique.
On the other hand, we have seen that on Cretan soil the part later
played by the King of Beasts had already been taken at much earlier date
See, too, J\ of M., iii, p. i>j, Fig. 75. cates hardly later than L. M. I a.
This intaglio belongs to the earlier Thisbe ' 'E</>. 'ApX., 1SS9, Pl.X, iS.
group as the 'flat cylinder' form itself indi-
Minoan
type with
lion's
hind-legs
on
ground.
Examples
of tra-
ditional
Cretan
type of
lion
springing
on quar-
ry's back.