SACRIFICED BULL ON CEREMONIAL TABLE

41

Goddess in her character of Lady of the Arena. He wears apparently the
usual loin-clothing and puttees, and the two rings encircle his upper arms.

Fig. 24. Cornelian Lentoid from Mycenae
showing Sacrificed Bull on Table.

Fig. 25. Banded Agate Lentoid from
near arkhanes.

An interesting pendant to this design is to be found on a lentoid bead-
seal of banded agate,1 the comparatively advanced Late Minoan character
of which is evidenced by the conventionally
arranged foliage of a bent palm-tree visible in
theupperfield (Fig. 24). Here the slaughtered
bull, with the dagger stuck as before into the
back of its neck, appears, with protruding
tongue and his legs bent under him, on what
is clearly some kind of' sacrificial table or
altar. The thick board or slab on which
the victim rests is supported by four sub-
stantial legs with narrow posts between
Fig. 26. Green Steatite Lentoid : them, the broader supports being of an archi-
Museum, Candia. tectural type better illustrated by a fresco of

kindred design from Hagia Triada.2

Gem-

types

showing

sacrificed

bull on

Table.

1 From Mycenae: in the Berlin Museum
(Montigny Coll.) : FurtwSngler; Besctireibung
der Geschnittenen Steine, no. 22, and PI. I, and
Antikc Ganuiai, no. 22, and PI. II. See,
too, Imhoof Blumer und Otto Keller, Tier-
tend Pflanzoibiider mef Miinzen und Gemmen,
H- 17, 55, and p. rio. There the animal is
taken for an antelope, owing to the upright to them by the engraver,
direction of the horn that is visible. This

view, however, was published in 1SS9 when
the long array of Minoan bovine types was
unknown. Furtwangler, writing in 1896,
recognized its real character.

2 See below, p. 43, and P. of.M., iii, p. 39,
Fig. 24. The supports on the gem resemble
bucrania, and have seemingly been assimilated