DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0348
RELIGION 295
it) " has chalked out a new chapter of Genesis, which
Thales was subsequently to write."
Now we can hardly believe that the Mycenaean man was
old enough to know so much or young enough to have
forgotten so little; and the potter's Genesis must wait for
further proof. But of religion proper we have documents
whose interpretation can admit of no doubt. Such are the
actual altars at Mycenae and Tiryns; the funeral offerings
and the clear traces of continued ministration to Y^fa
the dead; the adoration scenes occurring in My- to
cenaean art; the rude images which are hardly less abun-
dant in Mycenaean remains than the eikon in modern
Greece or the crucifix in Catholic countries.
To begin with the last. We have considered briefly in
a previous chapter the rude marble idols which abound in
the prehistoric graves of the Cyelades, and which
are uniformly found in association with pottery biein'the
of a most primitive type. This pottery finds its
nearest counterpart in that of the Burnt City on Hissarlik,
where we meet with terra-cotta images as rude, terracottas
and often altogether grotesque, as when one figure at Troy
stands erect on another's head. Of these idols Dr. Schlie-
mann collected about 700, all of the same shape — rep-
reseating in the rudest possible outlines a female form.
From their owlish faces and the absence of any articulation
of the lower limbs, he conceived them to be copies of the
ancient Palladium, which was fabled to have fallen from
heaven; and with the same active fancy he saw in the
countless " owl-head vases," occurring with these, sacred
utensils for the exclusive service of the goddess.1
1 See Ilios, p. 329. In the face of this profusion of idols, it is curious to
recall the fact noted by Mr. Gladstone {Homeric Synchronism, p. 65), that " we
find in Homer but one clear instance of an image for religious worship. The
solemn procession in the sixth Iliad (297-303), carries the dedicated veil or
it) " has chalked out a new chapter of Genesis, which
Thales was subsequently to write."
Now we can hardly believe that the Mycenaean man was
old enough to know so much or young enough to have
forgotten so little; and the potter's Genesis must wait for
further proof. But of religion proper we have documents
whose interpretation can admit of no doubt. Such are the
actual altars at Mycenae and Tiryns; the funeral offerings
and the clear traces of continued ministration to Y^fa
the dead; the adoration scenes occurring in My- to
cenaean art; the rude images which are hardly less abun-
dant in Mycenaean remains than the eikon in modern
Greece or the crucifix in Catholic countries.
To begin with the last. We have considered briefly in
a previous chapter the rude marble idols which abound in
the prehistoric graves of the Cyelades, and which
are uniformly found in association with pottery biein'the
of a most primitive type. This pottery finds its
nearest counterpart in that of the Burnt City on Hissarlik,
where we meet with terra-cotta images as rude, terracottas
and often altogether grotesque, as when one figure at Troy
stands erect on another's head. Of these idols Dr. Schlie-
mann collected about 700, all of the same shape — rep-
reseating in the rudest possible outlines a female form.
From their owlish faces and the absence of any articulation
of the lower limbs, he conceived them to be copies of the
ancient Palladium, which was fabled to have fallen from
heaven; and with the same active fancy he saw in the
countless " owl-head vases," occurring with these, sacred
utensils for the exclusive service of the goddess.1
1 See Ilios, p. 329. In the face of this profusion of idols, it is curious to
recall the fact noted by Mr. Gladstone {Homeric Synchronism, p. 65), that " we
find in Homer but one clear instance of an image for religious worship. The
solemn procession in the sixth Iliad (297-303), carries the dedicated veil or