DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0517
Boyish
martial
figures.
464 GODDESS AND YOUTHFUL WARRIOR ON SIGNET
Goddess, may be clue in part at least to some principle of isocephaly—though
the sinewy thighs belong rather to a youth than to a young boy. Whether or
not the peaked shape of the upper part of the Goddess's head represents
some kind of tiara
must remain uncer-
tain owing to the
summary character
of the engraving.
She is robed in a
short flounced skirt,
and both figures
wear anklets and
bracelets on their
right arms. Other-
wise, except for the
narrow belts, both
are entirely nude.
The interesting
point here is the way
in which the hands are disposed. In Furtwangler's opinion,1 the youthful
armed figure here presented is actually grasping the wrist of the seated
Goddess, in the attitude (x^pos enl KapwSj that among the Greeks was the
symbolic gesture for the bringing home of a bride. In my Tree and Pillar
Cult2 the view is expressed that both figures repeat the same gesture in
which a thumb and forefinger are pressed together, a widespread expedient
in sign-language for indicating agreement, and which to the modern Nea-
politan still conveys the idea of plighted ' troth '. It will be seen that both
views are substantially in agreement as to the sealing here of an intimate
relationship between the two figures. But it must be said that the whole
impression produced by the design is rather the relationship of a son to
a mother than of a husband to a wife or mistress.
Have we not here the same youthful divinity, martially arrayed,
whose burial place within its slender ' temenos ' has been illustrated above
from another gold signet,—with the miniature Minoan shield hung up beside
the little gravestone ?3 The mourning figure, there identified with the
Fig. 324. Scene on Electrum Signet-ring from Mycenae.
1 Antike Gemmen, iii, p. 36, and Fig. 14. compare my Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, p. 78
2 p. 78 {J.H.S., xxi, 1901, p. 176). Cf. [176J seqq. Cf., too, P. of Af., i, pp. 161,
Fig. 51. 162, and Fig. 116, and ii, Pt. I, p. 278.
3 See above, pp. 143, 144, and Fig. 93, and
martial
figures.
464 GODDESS AND YOUTHFUL WARRIOR ON SIGNET
Goddess, may be clue in part at least to some principle of isocephaly—though
the sinewy thighs belong rather to a youth than to a young boy. Whether or
not the peaked shape of the upper part of the Goddess's head represents
some kind of tiara
must remain uncer-
tain owing to the
summary character
of the engraving.
She is robed in a
short flounced skirt,
and both figures
wear anklets and
bracelets on their
right arms. Other-
wise, except for the
narrow belts, both
are entirely nude.
The interesting
point here is the way
in which the hands are disposed. In Furtwangler's opinion,1 the youthful
armed figure here presented is actually grasping the wrist of the seated
Goddess, in the attitude (x^pos enl KapwSj that among the Greeks was the
symbolic gesture for the bringing home of a bride. In my Tree and Pillar
Cult2 the view is expressed that both figures repeat the same gesture in
which a thumb and forefinger are pressed together, a widespread expedient
in sign-language for indicating agreement, and which to the modern Nea-
politan still conveys the idea of plighted ' troth '. It will be seen that both
views are substantially in agreement as to the sealing here of an intimate
relationship between the two figures. But it must be said that the whole
impression produced by the design is rather the relationship of a son to
a mother than of a husband to a wife or mistress.
Have we not here the same youthful divinity, martially arrayed,
whose burial place within its slender ' temenos ' has been illustrated above
from another gold signet,—with the miniature Minoan shield hung up beside
the little gravestone ?3 The mourning figure, there identified with the
Fig. 324. Scene on Electrum Signet-ring from Mycenae.
1 Antike Gemmen, iii, p. 36, and Fig. 14. compare my Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, p. 78
2 p. 78 {J.H.S., xxi, 1901, p. 176). Cf. [176J seqq. Cf., too, P. of Af., i, pp. 161,
Fig. 51. 162, and Fig. 116, and ii, Pt. I, p. 278.
3 See above, pp. 143, 144, and Fig. 93, and