Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/185

 FIGURES OF DIVINITIES. 163 apparently local ; we find it on no antique remains but these Cypriot figures, and there its details are only to be mastered in such examples as have not lost every trace of colour. 1 But we have not finished with our statuette. Round the neck and just above a kind of bib-shaped pectoral, a wide necklace of several strings entirely covers the throat. The robe has cuffs with zigzag decorations. In the idol here coarsely reproduced all these jewels must have been of gold, like those of Cypriot women of high rank ; the sparkle of glass, of rock crystal and carnelians must have mingled with the brilliancy of metal, while the embroiderer's needle may have lavished its skill on the robe. The result was, no doubt, gorgeous enough, but a little heavy ; the throat was invisible and the head must have been rather overwhelmed in its weight of jewelry. The statuette just described shows only the upper half of the robe ; other varieties of the type must be sought elsewhere, and Cypriot iconography can furnish several. Here is one that de- serves notice (Fig. 109). A richly dressed female stands upon a curiously shaped plinth with two small heads attached to its under side. Originally there were four heads, the fragments of as many supporting figures. The personage thus upheld must have been a goddess, and we have no hesitation in identifying her with the great Phoenician deity as she was shown to the people on those high festivals when the tour of the sacred inclosure was made. She is upright, and in full dress. She wears a broad band across her forehead, while her hair falls in numerous tresses all round her head. There are two necklaces, a plain circle and a triple row of pearls closed by a square clasp. The fore-arm is embraced at the wrist by half bracelets ending in goats' heads and kept in place by the elasticity of the metal. The outer robe, apparently made of a fine soft stuff, is open in front so as to display an under dress coming down only to the instep in front but covering the heels behind, and with a long train which the goddess gathers up in her left hand ; in her right hand she holds a flower. The drapery as a whole is heavy in spite of the effort to .vary its aspect by symmetrical folds and zigzag lines of embroidery. 8 1 This strange ornament may be compared to the silver plates worn in much the same way by the Dutchwomen of Friesland. 2 DOELL, Die Sammlnng Cesnola, plate i. fig. 2. CECCALDI, Monuments antiques de Cypre, p. 243, n. i.