THE 'TREE OF THE WORLD'

i47

in the centre of the field and with wide-stretched horizontal boughs. The ?nd z0"es

r • 1 by trunk

result of this more or less symmetrical arrangement is thus to divide the and
field into four spaces—the effect at first sight resembling that of the four of^Tree
rivers of Paradise or the triple-branched water-course of the Fields of Ialft ofth,e,,

World .

Fig. 95. The ' Ring of Nestor ', showing Bezel, enlarged 5 diameters.

in the Egyptian ' Islands of the Blest'.1 In this case, however, the rough
trunk and branches, convexly rendered, are unmistakable.

The tree, nevertheless, served a purpose analogous to that of the rivers
in delimiting into four spaces a field in which we may also recognize
a parallel to the Earthly Paradise. The scenes that its branches thus divide
belong in fact, not to the terrestrial sphere, but to the Minoan After-World.

An obvious analogy is suggested with Yggdrasil,2 the Ash of Odin's Com-
steed and the old Scandinavian ' Tree of the World'. The branches of this ^tlfy" «•-
greatest of all trees stretch over the whole world and shoot upwards to the drasil.
sky. One of its three roots reaches to the divine Aesir, another to the land
of the Giants, the third to the Underworld (Hello). Certain elements in this

1 See Ring of Nestor, &°c, pp. 49, 50. 2 Ibid,, p. 51.

L 2