ALABASTRON-LIKE CHALICE ON TIRYNS SIGNET

393

r;r»/ „y;

May not the
Goddess herself
have been de-
picted as partici-
pating in this
ritual refection ?

On the Ti-
ryns signet and a
series of seal
types referred to
below, we have
pictorial examples
of drink-offerings
made to her, either
by ministrants in
human form or by
the lion-shaped
Genii. Among
these the best clue
to the actual cha-
racter ofthe liquid
offering itself is
supplied by the
large gold signet-
ring, of which an
account is given
in the last Section
of this Volume,
found in associa-
tion with the
Temple-Tomb of
Knossos, and that

eventually led to its discovery. Owing to this, indeed, the term ' Ring of
Minos' has been familiarly given to it.1

In this case the Goddess is seated on a stepped altar of isodomic

masonry, and beckons to a youthful male satellite, who, with one arm,

pulls down the branch of a sacred tree, rising from within a small pillared

enclosure, and in the other holds a ' rhyton' of the pear-shaped kind that

1 See below, § it7, Et. I.



Tiryns Signet,
enlarged diameter,

IHOWING 'AlaRASTRON' HELD BY

d Goddess. /;, Lower Section
or Vapheio Bead-Seal with Basin in similar

Style. (Enlarged 3^ diams.)

Juice of
Tree

offered to
Goddess
on ' Ring
of Minos'.