Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Sky-Pillar in the 'Minoan' area 49
the sky and probably represents the Milky Way^ Another large
gold signet from Knossos (fig. 19)^ shows a god with a spear carried
in his right hand and rays of light (?)^ darting from his shoulders as
he descends from a tall tapering pillar towards a female worshipper.
That the shield-bearing deity of the first ring is to be identified with
the rayed god of the second ring, appears from a third representation
on a painted Idrnax found at Miletos {Mi/ato) in Crete (fig. 20)\
which gives him both shield and rays(?). It can hardly be doubted
^ Opinions have differed as to the interpretation of this wayy band :
see e.g.
C. Schuchhardt Schlieinann^s Excavations trans. E. Sellers London 1891 p. -277 ('pro-
bably. ..the sea'), Collignon Hist, de la Sculpt, gr. \. 46 ('sans doute la mer'), Perrot
Chipiez Hist, de VArt vi. 841 (' peut-etre la mer'), Ch. Tsountas— J. I. Manatt The
Mycenaean Age London 1897 p. 298 ('the cloud-canopy'), Furtvvangler Ant. Gemmen
ii. 10 ('die Andeulung des Himmelsoceans, des Okeanos (oder der Wolken?)'). Milani
Stud, e mat. di arch, c num. 1899— 1901 i. 196 fig. 27 says 'la via lattea,' and Harrison
Themis p. 168 fig. 36 'Milky Way,'—rightly, as I conceive. It should be noticed that
both the goddess and her maidens wear lilies in their hair {supra i. 623), and that the
milk-white lily was supposed by the later Greeks to have originated from the Milky Way
(supra i. 624). A somewhat analogous design occurs on a gold ring found in a tomb of
the Late ' Minoan ' ii period at Isopata in Crete : four females dance in a field of lilies,
while a diminutive goddess descends towards them from a wavy line apparently betokening
the sky (fig. 21 (x) after Sir A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1913— 1914 Ixv. 10 fig. 16).
Cp. also another gold ring from a tomb in the lower town at Mykenai, now at Athens
(Stais Coll. Mychiicnnc: Atlienes p. 71 f no. 3179
fig., H. Fritze in the Strcna Helbigiatia
p. 73 fig. I, Furtwangler Ant. Gemmen i pi. 6, 3, ii. 25 fig.. Sir A. J.
Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 1 76 ff. fig. 53, Harrison 7'heinis p. 166 fig. 34).
Evans in the
2 Procured by Sir A. J. Evans from the site of Knossos and by him published, to a
scale off, in iht Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 170 ff. fig. 48.
^ So Sir A. J. Evans loc. cit. But in Archaeologia 1906 lix. 100, ib. 1913— 1914 Ixv.
1 1 he retracts this interpretation, and now suggests that the rapid descent of the divinity
is indicated by long locks of hair flying out on either side. In view of the very similar
representations of the Babylonian Samas [supra i. 553 n. 5)
nation.
I prefer the former expla-
* Found by Sir A. J. Evans in 1899 within a chambered tomb at Milato and by him
published in X\\e Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 174
f. fig. 50.
C. II. A