Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/241

 THE PHOENICIAN TOMB AWAY FROM PHOENICIA. 221 or elsewhere is not of much importance to us at present. What is certain is that in a canton which formed part of the Phoenician kingdom of Kition there was a centre of population which kept its importance through many long centuries. None of the tombs seem to belong to a period so remote as the sepulchres of Dali ; at Athieno the bodies were, as a rule, buried in sarcophagi, some of which were adorned with elaborate sculptures, and these sculptures illustrate some of the favourite myths of the Greek poets, such as the murder of Medusa by Perseus, and the birth of Chrysaor. 1 But although the ideas and arts of Greece are to be traced to the subjects and execution of these carved pictures, although a Greek inscription may here and there be found upon them (Fig. 54), and although the majority may be no earlier in date than the sixth or even the fifth century B.C., it is none the less true that all these sarcophagi and the steles by which they are accompanied bear signs of Phoenician influence. Upon most of the steles which stood, as a rule, in front of the two narrow faces of the sarcophagus 2 the winged globe, sometimes of the Egyptian type, sometimes of the form peculiar to Phoenicia, appears just below the crowning ornament. 3 This ornament consists sometimes of two lions or sphinxes placed back to back (Figs. 54 and 151), sometimes of one of those curious and complex capitals of which we have already figured more than one specimen (Figs. 51, 52, 53). Sometimes the sphinxes are used in the decoration of these capitals. The way they are introduced may be seen in our reproduction of one of the steles, by which the fine sarcophagus already mentioned was accompanied (Fig. 1 52).* At each angle of the lid of this sarcophagus there is a lion couchant. We have already noticed the frequent use made of these lions and sphinxes in the decoration of Phoenician buildings, motives which came to Phoenicia from Egypt by way of Assyria, and underwent certain modifications on the way. In its own way this stele is one of the most careful works that the Phoenicians have left us ; it is also one of the best preserved. 1 CESNOLA, Cyprus, pp. I'op-uy and plate x. G. COLONNA CECCALDI, Monu- ments antiques de Chypre, pp. 65-74 and plate vi. 2 CESNOLA, Cyprus, p. 114. 3 Ibid. p. 109. 4 The knotted ribbon, painted in red, which hangs about the stele reproduced in our Fig. 151 should be noticed.