Narrative Cycles on the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus - Wendy Walgate

death in nature could have lead him to a similar, multi-dimensional view of the continuum of theuniverse.On Chart 7, the central focal point is the universality of life and death in the plant, animaland human world. Marinatos states that for the Minoans, “nature was alive, the source of potencyand livelihood but also a source of potential threat and disaster.” 67Revolving around the centreare the segments of the circle, which represent four sets of interconnecting narratives:A. The sacrifice/gift cycle revolves counter-clockwiseB. The chariots orbit in a clockwise directionC. The processions of gesturing and offering on the South side are united in oneblade to move counter-clockwiseD. The Figure and the libation scene are connected is one blade which movesclockwiseWhitney Davis mentions the term “ellipsis” in his work and this is defined as the part ofthe story that is not delineated. He states, “although representations render a particular narrativeof the ruler’s complete mastery over the natural and social worlds, they do so not just throughdirect reference but also through reshuffling and substituting elements of the narrative, whichsuppresses or drops some of the them into ellipsis altogether – finally, masking the blow of theruler.” 68 In the episodic progression in Charts 6 and 7, the point of ellipsis on the HTS would seemto be the transitional point from death to the afterworld. The imagery does not feature traditional67 Marinatos, “Tree” 141.68 Davis, Masking 41.23