834 APOLLO KITHAROEDOS AND THE CRETAN LYRE

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a series of miniature bronze double axes of the votive type, perpetuating

the usage in vogue in the holy places of the Minoan Goddess.

The seven-stringed lyre or cithara, the special

instrument of Apollo, is also Minoan. It was played

in ritual invocations of the Lady of the Double Axes

long before the Cretan ministrants from Knossos

chanted to its strains the hymn of victory in honour

of the Delphic God.1

Attention has already been called in this work

to the use of this instrument in the sacrificial scene

tt,„ --a u on the painted sarcophagus from Hama Triada, where

riG. 350. Hieroglyphic * .

'Lyre' Signs, a, b, in- the objects of worship were the sacred Double Axes

cised on Seals; c, d, 0f t]le Goddess, whose indwelling presence was

Graffiti on Clay Docu- , , . . , , , ■ , ,r, ■ . ,

ments: Knossos. marked by the perched birds. 1 his is supplemented

-jT^ by another similar fragment, itself from the site of

cUhara'm the 'Little Palace' there, in which some details of the instrument are more
Crete and , i j /• i / v T^. T • •

Delphi. clearly denned (see below, t ig. 552, o). It may, indeed, be truly said (in a more

literal sense than might be suspected) that
the long-robed priests—like those of the
' Procession Fresco '—who here play the
Minoan cilhara, were the true forerunners
of Apollo kitharoedos.

The cithara already appears at
Knossos as a hieroglyphic sign on a seal-
impression and clay documents from the
Palace deposit, Fig. 550, a, d, and, again,
on a bead-seal from the Candia district,
Fig. 550, bp- The cursive versions of the
sign, as seen in Fig. 550, c, d, present only
three chords, but too much importance
Fig. 551. Clay Impression of 'Sig- must not be attached to these secondary
net' Seal; Hieroglyphic Deposit, forms 3 That the instrument originally
Knossos (enlarged). . ° '

had only four is made probable by the

appearance, at an epoch equivalent to E. M. Ill, of male figurines of marble

1 The cithara,—good for marking rhythm,— contest at Delphi because he had not learned

was specially adapted for dactylic chants like to accompany himself on the cithara.

the Hymn of Apollo (see A. and M. Croiset, 2 Cf. A. E., Scripta Mhwa, i, p. 192, No. 29.

Hist, de la litteraturegrecque (2nd ed.), p. 67). 3 A derivative type also appears in the

Pausanias (10. 7) relates that Hesiod was Linear Class A {P. of M., i, p. 642, Fig. 17(i,

forbidden to take part in the hymn-singing No. 78).