AS VEGETATION DAEMONS POURING LIBATIONS 453

seen, from the serviceable Hippopotamus Goddess of Egypt, now appear as
the active agents in such libations. On a whole series of bead-seals, some
of which, at least—as the specimens from the Vapheio Tomb show—go back
to the flourishing days of L. M. I b—these daemonic monsters are seen hold-
ino- libation ewers of the same class as those repeated in the earlier group.

By this time—the first half of the Fifteenth Century B.C.—the ' anti-
thetic' scheme is in full
swing, while the great
signet-ring from Tiryns
shows that the processional
arrangement, adopted at
this time from Egypt by \)f//i 3
the Minoanfresco painters, \J i/Ml *i{\\ '"
was also followed in repre- \m/M «HJM\%//
sentations of these Genii. \ ly
Even when, as on a sar-
donyx amygdaloid from Fig. 377. Co
, \r 1 ■ i- 11 Bead-seal: (

the Vapheio 1 orab' a Crfte

haematite example ' from

a Greek island ',2 and other similar types,3 only a single daemon is seen

holding an ewer, it fits on to one or other of these schemes.

On the cornelian amygdaloid, Fig. 377, retrospective light is thrown on
the talismanic bead-seal, Fig. 370 a, where a two-handled libation vase is
flanked by the solar disk with scorching rays and a prone spray of vegeta-
tion below. Here the rayed orb appears over the head of a starveling
palm-stem, beside which the Genii pour their life-bringing draughts, while,
behind each, rises a thriving plant—conveying the assurance of full revival.

Specially informative, too, is the onyx lentoid from the Vapheio Tomb,
Fig. 378. The confronted monsters are here seen holding up their libation
vases above triple shoots, resembling those of nursling palms. The object
from which they rise seems to be rather a large pot than the ' sacral
horns V

378. Onyx Lentoid Bead-
seal : Vapheio Tomb.

Con-
fronted
Genii on
Vapheio
gem
pouring
libations
into

fountain
basin
before
nursling
palm.

1 'Ec/>. 'Apx-, 1889, PL X, 36: Furt-
wangler, Antike Gemmen, PI. II, 31.

" Berlin Cat., PI. I, 4r ; Milchhofer, An-
fiinge, 6,-y., p. 68, Fig. 46, a.

8 E.g., .Berlin Cat., PI. II, 53, a greyish
green steatite conoid from Cyprus of rough

this talismanic subject was taken over into
Cypro-Minoan sphragistic Art. Cf., too, the
cylinder, Fig. 383, p. 459. The bronze hydrias
found at Kurion with reliefs of confronted
Genii were clearly imported objects.

This view, given in my original account

fabric, Milchhofer, op. cit., p. 6S, 46, /;. The of this gem type in Tree and Pillar Cult, pp.
Oriental form is interesting as showing how 3 (100-r), has been now corroborated by the