DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0447
392
THE MYCENAEAN AGE
Fig. 168. Necklace of Gold and Car-
nelian Be;i<ls with I'yndauts
In the treasure there are also large pendants (alternately of glass-paste
anil gold plate) in the shape of a hand grasping a woman's breast, from
which hangs a small acorn of an olive-green stone in a gold cup. This
symbolic device (which recurs in an-
other pendant) has an evident refer-
ence to a goddess of fecundity, and
finds analogies in figures of Isis and
Isbar in their maternal offices. Staes
has found in a sort of sacred pit ad-
joining the temple at Aegina a very
archaic (sixth century) terra - cotta
image of Aphrodite, with hands grasp-
ing the breasts, precisely as in these
pendants.
Among the five inlaid finger-rings, one is of singular interest (Fig. 169).
"It is a massive gold ring with besil in the shape of a Boeotian shield,
the interior of which is cut into narrow sockets set mosaic fashion with
pieces of the blue glass paste." This shield design
is thought to afford a clue to the date of the deposit.
In form it closely resembles the shield on Boeotian
coins from the middle of the fifth century onwards,
which was even then undoubtedly an archaic mone-
tary type; but the coins of Salamis afford a still
closer parallel, even to the triple ridge around the
rim appearing on our ring. Now the shield on (he
Salaminian coin is that of Telamonian Ajax, who
was the son of Aeacus, and represents the early Aeginetan dynasty in
Salamis. Thus the shield of Ajax and the shield on the Aegina ring
represent an Aeakid badge, and establish a most interesting connection
with the earliest Aeginetan legends. On the other hand, the shield-form
appears to be derived from that of the great notched shield of the My-
cenaeans. "It is therefore clear (Mr. Evans remarks) that the form
represented on the Aegina ring is essentially of Mykenean origin, and
the recurrence of the same type of shield as an Aeakid badge in Salamis
and among the Minyans of Boeotia affords an interesting evidence of the
continuity of indigenous tradition."
The solid gold bracelet and rings raise another interesting question.
The weight of the bracelet is 52.4 grammes; three of the rings weigh
8.6 grammes each, the fourth 8.7, and the fifth 7.6, — the average being
8.4 (or 130 grains). Dividing the weight of the bracelet by that of the
heaviest ring (a little above the average), we find it contains 6 such
units. " It will be seen that the weight of the rings, and apparently that
of the bracelet too, answers to a definite standard, and there is every
Fig. 1(59. The Shield
Ring
THE MYCENAEAN AGE
Fig. 168. Necklace of Gold and Car-
nelian Be;i<ls with I'yndauts
In the treasure there are also large pendants (alternately of glass-paste
anil gold plate) in the shape of a hand grasping a woman's breast, from
which hangs a small acorn of an olive-green stone in a gold cup. This
symbolic device (which recurs in an-
other pendant) has an evident refer-
ence to a goddess of fecundity, and
finds analogies in figures of Isis and
Isbar in their maternal offices. Staes
has found in a sort of sacred pit ad-
joining the temple at Aegina a very
archaic (sixth century) terra - cotta
image of Aphrodite, with hands grasp-
ing the breasts, precisely as in these
pendants.
Among the five inlaid finger-rings, one is of singular interest (Fig. 169).
"It is a massive gold ring with besil in the shape of a Boeotian shield,
the interior of which is cut into narrow sockets set mosaic fashion with
pieces of the blue glass paste." This shield design
is thought to afford a clue to the date of the deposit.
In form it closely resembles the shield on Boeotian
coins from the middle of the fifth century onwards,
which was even then undoubtedly an archaic mone-
tary type; but the coins of Salamis afford a still
closer parallel, even to the triple ridge around the
rim appearing on our ring. Now the shield on (he
Salaminian coin is that of Telamonian Ajax, who
was the son of Aeacus, and represents the early Aeginetan dynasty in
Salamis. Thus the shield of Ajax and the shield on the Aegina ring
represent an Aeakid badge, and establish a most interesting connection
with the earliest Aeginetan legends. On the other hand, the shield-form
appears to be derived from that of the great notched shield of the My-
cenaeans. "It is therefore clear (Mr. Evans remarks) that the form
represented on the Aegina ring is essentially of Mykenean origin, and
the recurrence of the same type of shield as an Aeakid badge in Salamis
and among the Minyans of Boeotia affords an interesting evidence of the
continuity of indigenous tradition."
The solid gold bracelet and rings raise another interesting question.
The weight of the bracelet is 52.4 grammes; three of the rings weigh
8.6 grammes each, the fourth 8.7, and the fifth 7.6, — the average being
8.4 (or 130 grains). Dividing the weight of the bracelet by that of the
heaviest ring (a little above the average), we find it contains 6 such
units. " It will be seen that the weight of the rings, and apparently that
of the bracelet too, answers to a definite standard, and there is every
Fig. 1(59. The Shield
Ring