DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0405
THE MYCENAEAN WORLD AND HOMER 351
stelae and the offerings of the Royal Graves, we find the
horse already harnessed to the chariot. But, as Hehn has
shown,1 it was from Asiatics ftiat this use for the horse as
well as the fashion of the chariot itself was borrowed. The
chariot of the Mycenaeans often resembles, even in details,
that on Mesopotamian monuments. Like the Homeric
heroes, the Mycenaeans never appear on horseback, but
mount the chariot, whether for the journey, the chase, or
the march, though again, like Homer's men, they dismount
when the field is reached and fight on foot.
For draught and burden the horse was little used, that
drudgery being reserved for the ox and possibly the mule.
The domestication of cattle among the Mycenae- The ox and
ans rests on no uncertain evidence: we have beef mule
bones from their tables and altars; kine not only in clay
but in precious metals substituted for sacrificial victims;
and the very act of capture and subjugation is vividly
brought before our eyes, as on the Vaphio vases. As re-
gards the mule, the case is far less clear. Asses' teeth have
been recognized with some hesitation in Mycenaean remains
(p. 69), and we have the evidence — whatever it be worth —
of the ass-headed monsters in fresco (Fig. 156). But while
the mule is the beast of draught and burden par excellence
in Homer, the ass is mentioned only once;2 and, therefore,
Schrader holds that it cannot possibly have belonged to the
domesticated animals of the Homeric age, and assumes that
when the Hellenes took to breeding mules they imported
brood-asses which were far too costly for other uses. The
archaeological indications noted above may warrant the con-
jecture that this was done as early as the Mycenaean age;
but to justify any certain conclusion further evidence must
be forthcoming.
1 Wanderings of Plants and Animals, 40-52. - Iliad, xi. 358.
stelae and the offerings of the Royal Graves, we find the
horse already harnessed to the chariot. But, as Hehn has
shown,1 it was from Asiatics ftiat this use for the horse as
well as the fashion of the chariot itself was borrowed. The
chariot of the Mycenaeans often resembles, even in details,
that on Mesopotamian monuments. Like the Homeric
heroes, the Mycenaeans never appear on horseback, but
mount the chariot, whether for the journey, the chase, or
the march, though again, like Homer's men, they dismount
when the field is reached and fight on foot.
For draught and burden the horse was little used, that
drudgery being reserved for the ox and possibly the mule.
The domestication of cattle among the Mycenae- The ox and
ans rests on no uncertain evidence: we have beef mule
bones from their tables and altars; kine not only in clay
but in precious metals substituted for sacrificial victims;
and the very act of capture and subjugation is vividly
brought before our eyes, as on the Vaphio vases. As re-
gards the mule, the case is far less clear. Asses' teeth have
been recognized with some hesitation in Mycenaean remains
(p. 69), and we have the evidence — whatever it be worth —
of the ass-headed monsters in fresco (Fig. 156). But while
the mule is the beast of draught and burden par excellence
in Homer, the ass is mentioned only once;2 and, therefore,
Schrader holds that it cannot possibly have belonged to the
domesticated animals of the Homeric age, and assumes that
when the Hellenes took to breeding mules they imported
brood-asses which were far too costly for other uses. The
archaeological indications noted above may warrant the con-
jecture that this was done as early as the Mycenaean age;
but to justify any certain conclusion further evidence must
be forthcoming.
1 Wanderings of Plants and Animals, 40-52. - Iliad, xi. 358.