414 LONG-ROBED PERSONAGES HOLDING SYRIAN AXES

if advancing towards the left, but with the upper part of the body and h -■ l
turned back, the left arm being lowered with open palm as if in the act f
greeting. There is something free and instantaneous about the action

Fig. 343. Princely and Sacerdotal Personages holding Syrian Axes on Haematite
Bead-seals: a, Vatheia, near Knossos;. b, near 'Room of Throne, Knossos'; c,
Vapheio Tomb, (f)

The dolphin in the field of Fig. 343, 6, from a doorway near the ' Room
of the Throne', may itself be regarded as a personal badge of the princely
(and pontificial) individual there portrayed, perhaps the same personage as
that shown in a. It would thus find a parallel to the Cat type,1 coupled
with what seems to have been the hieroglyphic title of a Minoan ruler,
whose portrait is preserved on M. M. II clay sealings referred to above.

On the Vapheio bead-seal (Fig. 343, c) of the same form and material,
the axe-holding personage shows an abnormal projection of the chin.
This may possibly be interpreted as a short beard, but is more probab y
the effect of the summary character of the engraving.

The Syro-Egyptian Axe Type.
Syo-.. The form of single-bladed axe that recurs on three of these intaglios

axe type, two from Knossos and one from the Vapheio Tomb—is of great mteres
bearing on the whole history of their ritual costume. It corresponds i

; -'. 1 Found in 1908, just beneath the surface of the narrow, Eastern doorway of the
of the Stone Drum'!.