ECSTATIC POSSESSION OF DANCERS

69

delineated as here in human shape, on the wings of butterflies—which, indeed,
are still regarded by the Cretan peasants to-day as ' little Souls'—and it is
an eyed butterfly that hovers over the Elysian blooms on the painted stucco
relief of the Priest King. In the upper field of a signet presenting a religious
scene, in which the Goddess and the young archer God take part,1 we find
again the eye, coupled with the ear, as a symbol of a Power both all-seeing
and all-hearing. The ear symbol seems to recur in front of the dove on the
bronze votive tablet from Psychro.2

Ritual Dances and Ecstatic Possession.
On a fragment of a black steatite rhyton from the site of Knossos
already illustrated,3 we may recognize the ecstatic pos-
session of a male devotee before the altar of the Goddess—
a scene that recalls an episode witnessed by the Egyptian
envoy at Philistine Dor, whose Prince, by means of sacrifice,
set off his chief page into an ecstatic fit of dancing, in
which state he voiced the divine commands.4

We may infer from numerous analogies that the
sacrifice here was not without an instrumental accompani-
ment such as the flute-playing depicted over the slaughtered
bull on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus.0 The ecstatic state
produced recalls the biblical account6 of how Saul became
possessed of the ' Spirit of Jahwe ' when he joined the pro-
cessional band of prophets coming down from the ' high
place ' or sanctuary {bamak), preceded by harp, drum, pipe,
and lyre, so that he ' prophesied ' with the others.

In some cases, as on one of the Vapheio gems,7 we see a single female
figure in ecstatic action (Fig. 39). She holds in her right hand what appears

Sacred
eye in
back-
ground.

Ecstatic
posses-
sion :
Philis-
tine

prince at
Dor.

Saul
among
the
prophets.

Fig. 39.
Ecstatic Danc-
ing Figure on
Vapheio Gem (f).

1 P. of M., ii, pp. 841, 842, Fig. 557.

2 P. of M., i, p. 632, Fig. 470.

3 P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, p. 614, Fig. 386.

1 The episode occurs in the account of the
Mission of Wen Anion, in the Golenischeff
Papyrus. On this individual possession, see
P. of M., i, pp. 223, 224, where the settled
dove is shown to be the outward sign of the
entrance of the divine spirit into the votary.

5 See above, p. 39, Fig. 24.

6 Samuel x. 5 seqq. For biblical examples
of sacred dances and ecstatic possession see
especially W. O. E. Oesterley, D.D., The
Sacred Dance, a Study in Comparative Folklore

(Cambridge, 1923). Dr. Oesterley (pp. cit.,
pp. 108, 109) points out that hebel, the word
translated 'company' of prophets in the
A.V. is primarily a ' rope ' or ' string ', and
implies a procession in single file. He com-
pares (pp. 58, 59) a monument in the palace of
Asshurbanipal, where a procession, the fore-
most in which are dancing, is led by men
playing harps. He also instances the Hittites,
on the rock relief of Boghazkeui, who are in
single file, performing ' a running step dance'.
7 'E<£. 'APX., 1889, Pis. X, XII, pp. 165,
166 ; Furtwangler, Antike Gemmen, ii, 45.

Dancer
on Va-
pheio
gem.