842

BOY-GOD ON SIGNET-RING, HOLDING BOW

ciated with a male consort who may from time to time be interpreted
as standing either in a marital or a filial relation, and who in some cases
appears as an adult warrior and in others as a young boy. It is particularly
significant, moreover, as noted above, when we find this male consort—who
wears the same tiara as the Goddess to mark his divinity—holding a bow
as, on occasion, the Goddess herself, and with the same lion guardian.

Fig. 557. Gold Signet-ring in the Ashmolean
Museum showing Boy-God holding Bow. (J)

Fig. 553. Gold Bead-seal from Thisise. (f)

Signet-
type.

On an interesting gold signet-ring, in the Ashmolean Museum,1 Fig. 557,
what seems to be a Boy-God brandishing a bow in one hand and with the
other arm, raised above his head, holding a round-pommelled clirk,2 descends
with flowing locks, apparently in response to the vehement gesticulation ot
a richly dressed female figure' in whom we may venture to recognize the
Mother Goddess. In the field are the eye and ear symbols,4 which certainly
have a divine significance, but the meaning of the more plainly attired female
to the right, leaning over a jar with a tree and a rock—or possibly another
jar—behind, is not easy to explain.

In her character of the huntress—so well illustrated by the Thisbe signet,
Fig 558 '"—the great indigenous Goddess survived, as is well known, in the
Island under her traditional Eteocretan name of Diktynna or Britomartis6

One of

Artemis
Diktynna
or Brito-
martis,
the

Huntress, who was naturally identified with Artemis by the Greek colonists

1 Given by Mr. E. P. Warren, said to be
from the Vapheio Tomb.

1 This interpretation of the object, the re-
sult of the microscopic examination, is cor-
roborated by Monsieur Gillieron.

3 The ' scale' pattern on the upper part of
her skirt recalls that of more than one Minoan
dress pattern.

4 The object in front of the dove on the
votive plate from Psychro {P. of M., i, p. 632,
Fig. 470) seems also to be an ear.

5 See A. E , Ring of Nestor, &-Y., pp. 21, 22;
Fig. 24.

6 Translated the ' Sweet Virgin ' (Solinus,
x, 8 Britomarten quod sermone nostra sonat
virginem dulcem; Hesych., fipirv.yXvKvs KprJTts.