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

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THE HOMERIC AGE. 329
of the regular Mycenean type
" there were
series of cist-graves
two circular pits lined with stone like the rest. One of these
contained an earthen vase full of bones, the other a similar vase
full of ashes\" M. Kabbadias rightly infers that this cemetery
belonged to " a transition stage between the Mycenean and
Homeric epochs." When we recollect that Salamis was one
of the chief seats of the great Achean house of the Aeacidae,
we are justified in concluding that after the conquest of the
island by the Acheans the newcomers would be buried in their
own fashion.
Engraved Gems. Pliny- remarked on the complete
absence of any mention nf signets in Homei'. This is a very
remarkable fact, for there are many passages
where we should
naturally expect to find mention of siynets, such as the fastening
and unfastening of doors of the treasure chambers ; and
in the passage which relates the sending of the letter,
though Proetus scratched the characters on a tablet, we are not
told that he sealed it, as some have hastily assumed to have
been the case. The men of the M3"cenean t(jmbs used engraved
gems very fnx'ly, either as anndets or signets or as both combined.
We hear of jewellei-y and all kinds of ornaments in
Homer, but of no kind of stone or other substance used for
setting, except amber, a substance too brittle for engraving on,
but which can be bored for beads with the greatest ease by
primitive men, such as the lake-dwellers of Switzerland and
the Po valley,
and the Angles and Saxons, who could not work
hard stones. On tiie other hand tlu^
Mycenean ])eop]e could
woik green ias]ter, coiiielian, serpentine, snrdonyx, la|)is lazuli,
and rock ci'ystal,
tor tlieii'
engraved gems. If the Acheans
of Homer had used such stones, it would be strangi' that nowhere
in tlu'
poems are they
mentioned. if tlu' Iliad and the
Odi/s.sei/ wei'e late com|)osit ions, or full of late int('i'])olations,
references to the use of the signet must have crept in, for
it is al)solulely eeitain that the j)ra('tice of using seals was on,'
thatgi'ew more and more as we get to (dassical times, and that
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'I'sMiiiitiis and Miuiatt, up. rll., ]t. IVSS.
//. .V. xxxiii. V2.
330 THE HOMERIC AGE.
at no time in the Hellenic period did it tend to fall into
desuetude.
It is indeed most probable that even under the Achean
domination the use of Mycenean engraved stones went on
without check among their subjects of the old i-ace, for that
these stones are still in use down to our own day in the
Greek islands is a well established foct.
They are employed
as milk amulets by the women of Crete, where they are called
Galopetras^, and also by those of Melos, where they are termed
by the similar name of Galoussai^. If we are right
in our
conclusion that there has been no complete change in the
popidation of the Greek islands, and that the present inhabitants
for the most part are the descendants of those who
dwelt there in the neolithic period, it is likely that at no time
have these people ever ceased to wear engraved stones as
amidets. Nor can it be maintained that this practice of
wearing milk charms is only of modern growth on Greek soil.
In the Orphic poem Lithica, which treats of the virtues of
different stones, the GalaJdis or milk-stone has a conspicuous
place : "And bid the bride but late a niotlier made
To drink this gem with honied mead allayed,
That her sweet infant on her flowing breast,
Drunk with the copious stream, may soundly rest''."
That these stones were primarily amulets and not seals is
highly probable. Though
the stones themselves are so abundant,
impressions from them seem unknown in most Mycenean
sites^ This stands in strong contrast to Babylon, where the
cylinder was actually used as a signet and where countless
impressions have been found in cla}'.
But even in Babylonia
the original use of the engraved stone seems to have been
'
A. J. Evans, "Primitive Pietogniphs" (Jour. IIcU. Stitd. xiv. Tp. '2H'}). The
Cretan women wear tliem ''round their necks as charms of great virtue,
especially in time of childbearing."
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For this fact I am indelited to my friend Mr 1!. C. BosaiKjuet, ]\r..\.,
Director of the Hritish School at Athens.
Litlilcd, '21\.s