DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0179
ISLAND STONES."
147
nesos, but are apparently foreign to Asia Minor.2°3 Professor Newton, realizing
the importance of these stones long years before others heeded them, collected
a very large number, now to be seen in the British Museum. Similar stones
were purchased by the Berlin Museum in 1880; and many others are scattered
through other collections, or are still floating about in trade. These gems
are either in soft stone, principally steatite, or in hard stones, such as sard,
agate, jasper, or chalcedony, the latter kind showing the most advanced art.
They are all pierced, as though to be strung. The two principal shapes are
those of a flattened round pebble such as would be found along the seashore,
and of a plum-pit. Other varieties, including three or four sided prisms, or
round balls, are rare, and evidently of later date, but show the same family
of designs. A few of the more advanced show subjects borrowed from the
Orient, such as the lion, sphinx, griffin, etc. ; but the greater part have scenes
which might be taken from daily life on the islands or the European continent,
and are naturalistic in character; others have purely geometrical decoration.
Fig. 71. Engraved Gem with Sym-
bolical Representation. Proven-
ience unknown.
Fig. 72. Engraved Gem with Vase-
bearing Figure, possibly Iris.
Crete.
Fig. 73. Engraved Gem with one of
the Earliest Representations of
the Tortured Prometheus. Crete.
The animals native to Europe — cattle, goats, deer, roe, dogs, long-necked
birds, cloves, and eagles — are most common; but polyps, ships, war-scenes,
and the excited hunt, also appear. It is worthy of notice, that these subjects
are not composed into the space with the mechanical symmetry so charac-
teristic of Oriental art, but seem to fill it out naturally.203a Thus, is a deei
made to occupy a tiny gem, a lance pierces it; and its limp but crude members,
"a living episode, as it were, of the hunt," fall naturally into the confined
space. The same is true of more complicated war or hunting scenes, as repre-
sented by one of the Mykene gold rings (So. 334, Schliemann), the technique
of which resembles these stones.
The horse, moreover, plays a most important part in these gems, and
appears in such combinations with bird, lion, and locust, that these must
have a deeper symbolical meaning than the majority of subjects. One of
these monsters, appearing frequently, carries a heavy burden, in one case
(Fig. 71) clearly a dead steer or goat. Again, it bears a vessel, seemingly
for carrying water (Fig. 72). This latter figure has been ingeniously connected
with Hesiod's description of Iris, who bore water from the Styx in a golden
147
nesos, but are apparently foreign to Asia Minor.2°3 Professor Newton, realizing
the importance of these stones long years before others heeded them, collected
a very large number, now to be seen in the British Museum. Similar stones
were purchased by the Berlin Museum in 1880; and many others are scattered
through other collections, or are still floating about in trade. These gems
are either in soft stone, principally steatite, or in hard stones, such as sard,
agate, jasper, or chalcedony, the latter kind showing the most advanced art.
They are all pierced, as though to be strung. The two principal shapes are
those of a flattened round pebble such as would be found along the seashore,
and of a plum-pit. Other varieties, including three or four sided prisms, or
round balls, are rare, and evidently of later date, but show the same family
of designs. A few of the more advanced show subjects borrowed from the
Orient, such as the lion, sphinx, griffin, etc. ; but the greater part have scenes
which might be taken from daily life on the islands or the European continent,
and are naturalistic in character; others have purely geometrical decoration.
Fig. 71. Engraved Gem with Sym-
bolical Representation. Proven-
ience unknown.
Fig. 72. Engraved Gem with Vase-
bearing Figure, possibly Iris.
Crete.
Fig. 73. Engraved Gem with one of
the Earliest Representations of
the Tortured Prometheus. Crete.
The animals native to Europe — cattle, goats, deer, roe, dogs, long-necked
birds, cloves, and eagles — are most common; but polyps, ships, war-scenes,
and the excited hunt, also appear. It is worthy of notice, that these subjects
are not composed into the space with the mechanical symmetry so charac-
teristic of Oriental art, but seem to fill it out naturally.203a Thus, is a deei
made to occupy a tiny gem, a lance pierces it; and its limp but crude members,
"a living episode, as it were, of the hunt," fall naturally into the confined
space. The same is true of more complicated war or hunting scenes, as repre-
sented by one of the Mykene gold rings (So. 334, Schliemann), the technique
of which resembles these stones.
The horse, moreover, plays a most important part in these gems, and
appears in such combinations with bird, lion, and locust, that these must
have a deeper symbolical meaning than the majority of subjects. One of
these monsters, appearing frequently, carries a heavy burden, in one case
(Fig. 71) clearly a dead steer or goat. Again, it bears a vessel, seemingly
for carrying water (Fig. 72). This latter figure has been ingeniously connected
with Hesiod's description of Iris, who bore water from the Styx in a golden