444

REMINISCENCE OF 'VAPHEIO' SCENES

Genius
leading
lion.

Fig. 300. Minoan Genius
leading Lion ; Cornelian
Lentoid'. Melos.

protruding tongue, and with one hind-leg drawn back, is essentially of the
same type as that of the Vapheio Cup B, belonging, as has been shown in
detail in the Third Volume of this work1, to the
scene in which—lured into dalliance by a decoy
cow—he is lassoed round one of his hind-lecs by
a Minoan cow-boy.2

On the other hand, the upraised tail of the
cow of Fig. 36S b, the udder of which is unmistak-
ably indicated, reproduces the physical sign of
sexual inclination already noted in the animal,
engaged in amorous converse with the bull in the
central scene of the same cup.3

Thebold artistic style ofthe engraving of both
these intaglios itself fits in well with the approxi-
mate date ofthe gold cups exhibiting these toreutic
masterpieces—approximately supplied by the fine L. M. \b pottery found
with them in the Vapheio Tomb.

To gems of this group may be here added the cornelian lentoid,
Fig. 369, said to have been found in Melos,1 worn and slightly fractured
below, in which another lion-headed Genius is shown leading a lion. In
the field above the lion's hind-quarters there appears what seems to be an
imperfect 8-shaped shield, of the significance of which, as a religious
symbol, something has been already said.5 It may be thought to connect
itself in a special way with the young warrior God.

We are thus led to another important group in which the Genii appear
as if executing divine behests or as actually ministering to the Minoan
Goddess or the youthful God.

Before describing scenes in which they appear in direct relation to the
God-head, a class of seal-stones must be referred to in which the Genu are
seen acting as vegetation spirits, holding libation vases or pouring magical
draughts of water upon baetylic pillars, altar blocks and holy cairns, or, as
already noted, into a chalice before the sacral horns and nursling palm
shoots. Seal impressions described below6 couple them with relatively
huge barley-corns, as harvest-bringers and guardians of granaries.

(1906), PP-

1 P. of M., iii, p. 1S2 seqq.

' Mid., p. 1S4, Fig. 127. The conven-
tional head ofthe palm, however, introduced
into the field, rather recalls the scene on Cup A.

3 Ibid;, p. 183 and note. Cf., too, Jahres-

kefte d. oesterr. Arch. Inst, v.
254, 395.

I A. E. Coll.

■'' P. of M., iii, p. 314 seqq.

II See.below, pp. 626, 627, Fi

614.