DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0095
RITUAL POURING FROM EWER INTO JAR
45i
fluid may often have been simply water. The ideas of sympathetic magic
here enter into the ritual. As the liquid contents were poured from the
vessel, so might rain be drawn from the sky and the vegetation be saved
from the drought.
Fig.
76 a, b. Ritual Scenes of pouring Liquid from a Ewer into a Jar ; a, on
Gold Signet from Thisbe ; b, on Clay Seal Impression, Knossos.
On the tablets of Ras-Shamra (where many of the actual jars to hold
such liquid offerings were set in the earth) the magic formula of libation is
itself recorded,1 together with the God's assurance—' if thus thou pourest, thy
tree shall be in My keeping-'.
In the fuller representation engraved on a gold bead-seal of flat Ritual
almond-shaped form from a grave at Thisbe in Boeotia (Fig. 376, a),'2 three from
personages are concerned. A female attendant, such as often accompanies ?wer mt0
the Minoan goddess, stands with her back to a plant that may in all
probability be recognized as a vine,3 pouring the contents of a one-handled
jug, showing a neck-ring indicative of metal-work, into a large jar, the
metallic character of which is also brought out by its recurved handles."'
Beyond this, bending over the jar, and with both hands over it in
gesticulatory action, is a second female personage, who, from the presence
behind of the little handmaiden—one of the pair with which she is so often
grouped—may herself be identified with the Minoan Goddess. Her child
attendant imitates her gesticulation, which in both cases may have been
accompanied by some spoken charm or incantation.
Eight years after the discovery of this Thisbe bead-seal the examina-
tion of some fragments of clay impressions from the ' Area of the Daemon
Cf. Virolleaud (cited by Schaefer) Syria, s From its form andtlieclustersth.it it bears,
xiii (1932), p. 13. this is obviously the same tree-like version of
See A. E., Ring of Nestor, cW. (Mac- a vine that occurs on the gold signet from
millans, 1925, and/. //. S., xv), pp. rS-20. Mycenae. * Cf. op. a'/., p. rS.
IV** h h
45i
fluid may often have been simply water. The ideas of sympathetic magic
here enter into the ritual. As the liquid contents were poured from the
vessel, so might rain be drawn from the sky and the vegetation be saved
from the drought.
Fig.
76 a, b. Ritual Scenes of pouring Liquid from a Ewer into a Jar ; a, on
Gold Signet from Thisbe ; b, on Clay Seal Impression, Knossos.
On the tablets of Ras-Shamra (where many of the actual jars to hold
such liquid offerings were set in the earth) the magic formula of libation is
itself recorded,1 together with the God's assurance—' if thus thou pourest, thy
tree shall be in My keeping-'.
In the fuller representation engraved on a gold bead-seal of flat Ritual
almond-shaped form from a grave at Thisbe in Boeotia (Fig. 376, a),'2 three from
personages are concerned. A female attendant, such as often accompanies ?wer mt0
the Minoan goddess, stands with her back to a plant that may in all
probability be recognized as a vine,3 pouring the contents of a one-handled
jug, showing a neck-ring indicative of metal-work, into a large jar, the
metallic character of which is also brought out by its recurved handles."'
Beyond this, bending over the jar, and with both hands over it in
gesticulatory action, is a second female personage, who, from the presence
behind of the little handmaiden—one of the pair with which she is so often
grouped—may herself be identified with the Minoan Goddess. Her child
attendant imitates her gesticulation, which in both cases may have been
accompanied by some spoken charm or incantation.
Eight years after the discovery of this Thisbe bead-seal the examina-
tion of some fragments of clay impressions from the ' Area of the Daemon
Cf. Virolleaud (cited by Schaefer) Syria, s From its form andtlieclustersth.it it bears,
xiii (1932), p. 13. this is obviously the same tree-like version of
See A. E., Ring of Nestor, cW. (Mac- a vine that occurs on the gold signet from
millans, 1925, and/. //. S., xv), pp. rS-20. Mycenae. * Cf. op. a'/., p. rS.
IV** h h