Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/229

 SARCOPHAGI AND SEPULCHRAL FURNITURE. 209 those representing the same woman with a child in her breast, of which more than one example has been furnished by the Cypriot tombs, although none have yet been encountered on the Syrian coast (Fig. 144). The presence of these nurses and mother-goddesses in the tombs is not surprising. Their deposit in such places was universal in the antique world. The connection of ideas is obvious. By placing in the sepulchre figures of those divinities who presided over the birth and early years of every living being, who watched over the fertility of nature and her incessant renewal, a sort of FIG. 144. Mother goddess. Terra-cotta. Louvre. 1 emblematic promise was held out to its tenant of a future and immortal life. Another object often found in the cemeteries is a terra-cotta chariot drawn by two or four horses, and occupied by one or more persons (Fig. 145). We must be on our guard against looking upon these as toys or decorative objects. They embody an allusion to the state and circumstance which, after surrounding the occupant during life, was supposed to follow him in his supreme migration. Little as we know about the customs and beliefs of the Phoenicians, 1 HKUZEY, Figurines, plate vi. fig. 6. VOL. I. E i;