Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

150 EARLIEST ART ON GREEK SOIL.

Aryan race, who were consequently near of kin to the early inhabitants of
Greece. It is certainly not mere accident that the famous decorations of the
tomb of Midas in Phrygia, as well as the gold-ware discovered by Schliemann
at Hissarlik, on the coast of Asia Minor, have some of the elements so marked
in this class of Mykene treasure : hence they have suggested for it the term
Phrygian. In the Midas tomb (Fig. 75) this metallic spiral has passed over into
stone ; but in the Hissarlik gold, now in Berlin, we see it in its genuine primi-
tive stage, where the wire spiral is not yet imitated in the metal surface, but
still actually applied to it. In the crude Mykene tombstones we have most
interesting samples of the influence of these spirals on working in stone, as
well as of the union with these metallic spirals of subjects peculiar to the
engraved gems. Thus, on one of these tombstones (Fig. 68) we are reminded
of the gems and their kindred gold rings by a scene in which a man riding in
a chariot is apparently chasing another, who carries a short sword; while above
and all around this scene are spirals scattered over the stone.

But still other influences than those originating in the gold-lands of Asia
Minor must very early have had a share in developing the artistic fancy and
skill of the people of the Archipelago. These were the Oriental elements, both
Semitic and Egyptian, which must have come in largely through the Phoenicians,
and which appear either in genuine imported wares or in imitations not easily
distinguishable from them. These Oriental motives are Semitic gods and their
symbols, plants peculiar to the South, such as the palm-leaf, lotos and papyrus
buds. Thus, for example, as to the Oriental origin of the form of the nude
Astarte (Fig. j6), with hands to breasts, doves on her head and shoulders, there
can be no doubt, nor as to the curious figure of a female with a striped garment
in the midst of a luxurious but most symmetrical lotos ornament; since simi-
lar figures appear repeatedly on Assyrian cylinders. On one island gem we
recognize at once that peculiar being which must have been imported from
far-off Chaldsea, in the fish-monster attacked by an active, struggling hero, who
is, doubtless, the prototype of the Greek Heracles.2oS One striking peculiarity
of this Oriental branch is, that moulds for pressing into and casting are the
means by which the objects are produced, showing a more mechanical method
than is evident in the pure Pelasgic or Phrygian families. The original types
of griffins, sphinxes, and perhaps lions, are from the Orient ; but the way in
which they are combined and applied does not necessarily point directly thither.
Many Mykene ornaments have two animals united into a composition resem-
bling heraldic devices. There were found at least seven representations of ram-
pant panther-like creatures, placed on each side of some symbol, a motive found
on earliest Lykian coins, the Phrygian tombs discovered by Mr. Ramsay, and
some "island stones." Five double eagles call to mind those on the rocks of
Cappadokia, although somewhat less conventionalized. This striking coinci-
dence between many motives in Greece and the earliest known to us from Asia