DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0251
200 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
pommel of the same material (often mounted with gold) or
of alabaster. The hilt is affixed to the blade by rivets of
bronze or gold.1 Usually the blade has a raised central
ridge from heel to point, sometimes with a further deco-
ration of geometrical design or figure subject. On one we
have on each side of the ridge " a frieze of galloping
horses worked in low relief; " on two others, griffins in full
flight.
But the greatest interest attaches to the bronze blades
inlaid with designs in different metals, which have all the
. effect of painting in colors. We have two of
Sword- these from Grave IV., four from Grave V.? one
from Thera, and another from Vaphio. The
simplest of these has a triple row of spirals (recalling the
pattern on the stele, Plate XI.), not inlaid in the strict
sense, but engraved directly on a gold plate which is then
set into the blade. The Vaphio sword is inlaid with a
simple leaf pattern, and that from Thera (Fig. 118) with
tiny gold axes of a unique type, resembling the tomahawk.
One of the Mycenae blades (Grave V.), with the gold plate
covering the hilt, is decorated with detached blossoms;
another with three running lions; a third (Fig. 115), with
cats or panthers hunting wild ducks on the banks of a
river which is full of fishes and fringed with the lotus.
But of prime importance, both as a work of art and an
illustration of Mycenaean armor, is the blade from Grave
IV. inlaid with a hunting-scene on each face (Fig. 89).
1 The Homeric sword is usually apyvp6jj\os (" studded with silver nails "), but
Agamemnon's has golden rivets. That the ^Aot are in fact the rivets now
in actual evidence on the sword-hilts and not mere decorations of the blade
becomes clear as we see Agamemnon putting on his armor (Iliad, xi. 29 ff.) :
"About his shoulders he slung his sword, and on it shone nails of gold, but
about it was a sheath of silver." With the blade in its scabbard, the golden
rivets of the hilt still flash in the light.
pommel of the same material (often mounted with gold) or
of alabaster. The hilt is affixed to the blade by rivets of
bronze or gold.1 Usually the blade has a raised central
ridge from heel to point, sometimes with a further deco-
ration of geometrical design or figure subject. On one we
have on each side of the ridge " a frieze of galloping
horses worked in low relief; " on two others, griffins in full
flight.
But the greatest interest attaches to the bronze blades
inlaid with designs in different metals, which have all the
. effect of painting in colors. We have two of
Sword- these from Grave IV., four from Grave V.? one
from Thera, and another from Vaphio. The
simplest of these has a triple row of spirals (recalling the
pattern on the stele, Plate XI.), not inlaid in the strict
sense, but engraved directly on a gold plate which is then
set into the blade. The Vaphio sword is inlaid with a
simple leaf pattern, and that from Thera (Fig. 118) with
tiny gold axes of a unique type, resembling the tomahawk.
One of the Mycenae blades (Grave V.), with the gold plate
covering the hilt, is decorated with detached blossoms;
another with three running lions; a third (Fig. 115), with
cats or panthers hunting wild ducks on the banks of a
river which is full of fishes and fringed with the lotus.
But of prime importance, both as a work of art and an
illustration of Mycenaean armor, is the blade from Grave
IV. inlaid with a hunting-scene on each face (Fig. 89).
1 The Homeric sword is usually apyvp6jj\os (" studded with silver nails "), but
Agamemnon's has golden rivets. That the ^Aot are in fact the rivets now
in actual evidence on the sword-hilts and not mere decorations of the blade
becomes clear as we see Agamemnon putting on his armor (Iliad, xi. 29 ff.) :
"About his shoulders he slung his sword, and on it shone nails of gold, but
about it was a sheath of silver." With the blade in its scabbard, the golden
rivets of the hilt still flash in the light.