DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0371
336
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CRETE
example alone is worthy of mention. This is a pinax from a
tomb at Praisos. The interior shows a horseman very much
in the style of the Prinias frieze (see below). Outside is the
fragment of a magnificent scene in which a hero wrestles with a
sea-monster (PL XLII, 2). The clean sweep of the outlines
and the splendid swing and vigour of the body are reminiscent
of the best Minoan work, and it is hard to believe that it is not
of local manufacture.1 The white object below the monster's
tail has been explained as a female foot, and it has been sug-
gested that the scene represents Thetis attempting to escape
from Peleus in the likeness of a fish.
Archaic In the Orientalizing Period a number of important works of
Metakvork art jn bronze was produced in Crete.3 Earliest of all are the
famous bronze shields found in the cave on Mt. Ida.3 These
are votive offerings of thin bronze, the smaller examples which
show no central boss being more accurately described as gongs
or cymbals. The designs are hammered out—more rarely
incised. The shields have a central boss, projecting in one
case enough to be made into the head of a bird in the round,
in another to form a lion's head in high relief. Round this are
circular friezes of animals. Sphinxes and snakes also appear.
One of the gongs shows a god, bearded in the Assyrian style,
swinging a lion above his head.4 On either side are winged
attendants. The nearest parallel to these bronzes are the
Phoenician bowls, made from the ninth to the seventh centuries,
which have been found at Nimrud, in Cyprus, Italy, and
Greece. The character is purely Oriental, a hotchpotch of
Assyrian and Egyptian motives. The ' shields ', however, are
probably of local manufacture, since not only do they seem a
regular form of offering but certain details in the drawing are
not of Oriental origin.5 In date they probably cover the last
half of the eighth century.6
1 Hopkinson, B.S.A., X, 149 ff., would make it an import from the
Melos-Delos group. Buschor, Greek Vase Painting, 32, maintains
its Cretan origin and finds a connexion between it and the Odysseus
and Ram vase from Aegina, which has been assigned to almost every
orientalizing fabric and is possibly Proto-attic.
2 Cf. Kunze, Kretische Bronzereliefs.
3 Other examples from Palaikastro and Phrati.
4 He is the young hunter god of the Gilgamesh type, one of whose
homes was the Zagros range. It is significant that Zagreus appears
early in Crete. 6 C.A.H., IV, 583.
6 Kunze would push some back to the ninth century, but cf.
Payne's review, J.H.S., LIII, jzz.
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CRETE
example alone is worthy of mention. This is a pinax from a
tomb at Praisos. The interior shows a horseman very much
in the style of the Prinias frieze (see below). Outside is the
fragment of a magnificent scene in which a hero wrestles with a
sea-monster (PL XLII, 2). The clean sweep of the outlines
and the splendid swing and vigour of the body are reminiscent
of the best Minoan work, and it is hard to believe that it is not
of local manufacture.1 The white object below the monster's
tail has been explained as a female foot, and it has been sug-
gested that the scene represents Thetis attempting to escape
from Peleus in the likeness of a fish.
Archaic In the Orientalizing Period a number of important works of
Metakvork art jn bronze was produced in Crete.3 Earliest of all are the
famous bronze shields found in the cave on Mt. Ida.3 These
are votive offerings of thin bronze, the smaller examples which
show no central boss being more accurately described as gongs
or cymbals. The designs are hammered out—more rarely
incised. The shields have a central boss, projecting in one
case enough to be made into the head of a bird in the round,
in another to form a lion's head in high relief. Round this are
circular friezes of animals. Sphinxes and snakes also appear.
One of the gongs shows a god, bearded in the Assyrian style,
swinging a lion above his head.4 On either side are winged
attendants. The nearest parallel to these bronzes are the
Phoenician bowls, made from the ninth to the seventh centuries,
which have been found at Nimrud, in Cyprus, Italy, and
Greece. The character is purely Oriental, a hotchpotch of
Assyrian and Egyptian motives. The ' shields ', however, are
probably of local manufacture, since not only do they seem a
regular form of offering but certain details in the drawing are
not of Oriental origin.5 In date they probably cover the last
half of the eighth century.6
1 Hopkinson, B.S.A., X, 149 ff., would make it an import from the
Melos-Delos group. Buschor, Greek Vase Painting, 32, maintains
its Cretan origin and finds a connexion between it and the Odysseus
and Ram vase from Aegina, which has been assigned to almost every
orientalizing fabric and is possibly Proto-attic.
2 Cf. Kunze, Kretische Bronzereliefs.
3 Other examples from Palaikastro and Phrati.
4 He is the young hunter god of the Gilgamesh type, one of whose
homes was the Zagros range. It is significant that Zagreus appears
early in Crete. 6 C.A.H., IV, 583.
6 Kunze would push some back to the ninth century, but cf.
Payne's review, J.H.S., LIII, jzz.