MINOAN GENII AND HIPPOPOTAMUS GODDESS 431

Fig.

354. Minoan Genius
carrying Bull.

Hippopotamus Goddess Ta-urt regarded as Source of Minoan Genii:
Earlier Interpretations.
A o-ood idea of this class of subject will be given by the photographic
reproduction of the Chalcedony lentoid shown in Fig. 3541 (see, too,
Fig. 358, 6), where the Minoan Genius, here with
a hippopotamus-like head, is carrying a huge
bull. The daemon has lion's feet.

In the earliest archaeological notices of
this class of subject, such as Milchhofer's in
1883,2 it was naturally approached in a back-
ward direction along the tortuous paths of
Greek mythology. A certain preference was
shown for the horse-headed Demeter of Phi-
galia and for allied forms of Erinys and Harpy.
The type of the daemon holding a high-spouted
vase, especially, did not fail to suggest Iris as
sent by Zeus to fetch water from the Styx in a golden ewer of that form.3
The true key was first supplied by Winter,1 who pointed out that the real
source of these monstrous shapes was to be found in the Egyptian Hippo-
potamus Goddess Ta-urt (Thueris), otherwise Reret—the nearest ' horse'-
type being in fact the ' Nilpferd'.

Even then elaborate attempts were made to vindicate the Hellenic
character of these strange creations. Furtwangler,5 indeed, ever resource-
ful, while admitting the resemblance of the whole figure to that of the
Hippopotamus Goddess, ventured on the bold suggestion6 that Ta-urt, as
depicted in Egyptian Art, represents the ' specialization ' of a type borrowed
from the Minoan daemons. Unfortunately, however, for this theory Ta-urt
was known in Egypt at least four centuries before the Genii appear in Crete.

1 See below, p. 433, n. 2 (from Cades' cast).

2 A. Milchhofer, Anfange der Kunst, p. 54
seqq., and p. So. Compare, too, Helbig,
Bull. dell'Insl., 1875, p. 41 seqq. ; O. Ross-
bach, Arch. 7.., 1S84, p. 173 seqq.;' Over-
beck, Kunstmythologie, iii. 6S3 seqq. : Tsoun-
tas, "&/>. 'Apx-, 1887, p. 162 seqq., and PI. X, r.

,; Hesiod, Theog., 784 seqq.: hi XiimJh

1 Arch. Anzeiger, 1S90, p. 10S.

s Antike Gemman, iii, p. 41 : ' Gleichwohl
ist eine Ahnlichkeit der gesaramten Gestalt
mit der agyptischen Nilpferdgottin Taueris

Views of
Milch-
hSfer
and
others.
Winter's
com-
parison
with
Ta-urt,

unverkennbar.'

G Loc. at. : ' Das umgekebrte ist viel leichter
denkbar: die Taueris ist die von der agypti-
schen Kunst gemachte Specialisierting eines
von aussen iiberlieferten Qamqnentypusi'
Professor Nilsson, who has collected much
material relating to the Genii in his Minoan
and Mycenaean Religion, while admitting
(p. 323) a striking resemblance to the Hippo-
potamus Goddess in the case of the Phaestos
gem (Fig. 35S, p. 433 below), yet. finds the
comparison 'Tar-fetched '.