170

'SNAKE FRAMES' AS SIGNS OF CONSECRATION

Goddess
with lion
guar-
dians.

Later on, there came into my possession from the neighbourhood of
Knossos itself, a lentoid bead-seal of brown steatite (Fig. 133 a), presenting,
in an inferior style, a similar subject but in which the Goddess, supporting

Fig. 133.

Lentoid Bead-seals showing Goddess with 'SnakeFrame5 between Lion
Supporters, a, Knossos ; b, c, Mycenae.

the same triple frame on her head, stands between two lion guardians.

A fresh light was thrown on the

subject by the British Excavations

initiated at Mycenae in 1920,1

through the discovery in a tomb

of the Kalkani Cemetery of two

cornelian lentoids bearing a practi-
cally identical version of this sub-
ject (Figs. 133, b, c),2 where again

the Goddess appears between two

lions, erect on their hind-legs and

with their fore-paws held down, as

in Fig. 133, a. Here again, on both

intaglios, a double axe rises from

the centre of the ' snake frame' held up by the Goddess above her head.

of snakes, from the centre of which rises the
sacred symbolic Double Axe.' Mr. Wace re-
calls ' Hesychius' equalization of irikeavi and

Fig. 134.

Gold Signet-ring from Royal
Tomb, Dendra. (f)

1 J. H. S., xli, p. 262 seqq.

2 The casts from which Fig. 133 b and c are
taken were made by the kind permission of Mr.
Wace, then Director of the School at Athens.
(See now his Chamber Tombs of Mycenae, p. 200
and PI. XXVIII). He observes on the designs
(op. at, p. 264): 'Above the head (of the
Goddess) is a ritual object, formed apparently

KifitXis', from which he draws the further
natural equation of the Minoan Goddess as
here seen with Kybele or Rhea. For the
cymbal and reed attributes of the Minoan
Rhea cf. P. of M., iii, p. 471 seqq.