THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

'
WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 273
blade of the chieftain's wooden axe (Fig. 44 i) with the rude
attempt to portray the human face and body on the former\
But this is the very lesson which Mycenean
art itself
teaches us, for whilst it succeeds eminently
effects derived from natural
in decorative
objects such as plants and animals,
it is
only in its highest development that it attempts to
wrestle with the human form artistically,
and even then it
cannot be said to have succeeded, for the modelling of the men
on the Vaphio cups is inferior to that of the bulls (p. 27). Nor
are we without the means of measuring its skill in the plastic
art at its earlier period, for the female idols from Mycenae,
Tiryns, the Heraeum, and Eleusis show us attempts at portraying
ihe human form as rude as any
to be found in the
Pacific.
But tiie fatal objection to this theory is that, as we now
have seen that the Mycenean culture has gradually been
evolved in the basin of tiie
Aegean not only in the islands but
equally in Attica and Argolis, Helbig would be forced to
maintain that the Phoenicians have formed the population of
the islands, and of the mainland of Greece, from the neolithic
period. This is so completely in contradiction of all historical
tradition that no one is likely
to maintain it.
Mr J. L. Myres- has likewise well ])ointod out that Cyprus
(wlii(-h of all places stood nearest to Phoenician influence and
which therefore ought to have l)eeu the first place in the
Aegean area to feel the Mycenean influence if it really
emanated from Phoenicia) boi'rowed nothing till (piite a late
date which can b(-' assicrticd to Phoenician sources; and on the
other hand it had exjxn'ted and taught much from an early
])erio(l to the whole Syiian coast, fioiii
Sjnjii-li to Tel-el-Hesy.
For in (
'vpius the i)ronze .\ge had a long
aii al-^o of a \cry rare type.
-
r/,;ss/c/ l;,ririr, Vol. x. (IsTf,), ]i.
li.Vi.
H. 18
274 WHO WERE THE MAKERS ?
{t'}
much later in Cyprus than anywhere
else, for that culture does
not appear there till about the
time of the xviiith Dynasty.
"Its
affinities lie rather with Cilicia
and Cappadocia, and its nearest
parallel
is with Hissarlik. Perhaps
the full Mycenean art reached
it from Rhodes, but when it did
reach it, it was in its full maturity,
almost in its decadence." It is
more probable that the Mycenean
culture was planted in Cyprus by
colonists who came from the mainland
of Greece or from Crete
(pp. 205 G), but even if Rhodes
had also added to the stream, this
would have been due to the fact
that she herself had received that
culture from the Greek mainland
or from Crete (p. 198), and not
from
Phoenicia.
All the evidence of Mycenean
manufactures in Phoenicia which
Dr Helbig can produce consists of
some " sub-Mycenean vases, and ,
chai'acteristically Cypriotic flasks,"
all
probably im|)orts from Cypi'us.
The actual remains of Phoenician
pottery
collections at
as seen in the
Beyrut, which show
the same series of leather- type
vases, show that this type
is
common if not indig-enous on the
Syrian coast and has nothin