Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/240

 216 HISTORY OF ART IN PHCENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. One of the long faces is occupied by a hunting scene (Fig. 143). The hunt takes place in a wood, as we may guess from the three trees which fill up the voids in the composition. The hunting party consists of five people, four of whom wear the full costume of a Greek hoplite. The fifth, an archer, is more lightly dressed ; he wears a conical cap on his head. Two of the hoplites attack a wild boar ; the other pair transfix a bull with their lances. On the right a horse is feeding ; on the left a dog seems to be following a scent. A curious detail occurs in the middle of the relief; a cock strikes the legs of one of the hoplites with his spur. He may have been introduced as a symbol of the virtues necessary to the soldier ; we find him sometimes on painted vases, on the shields of warriors. 1 The other long side is filled with a scene of genre, a feast (Fig. 144). On the left a bearded personage lies extended on a couch and holds out a two-handled cup to a naked attendant to be filled ; the latter carries an cenochoe in one hand and a large spoon in the other. This latter utensil was used to lift things from the huge bowl or crater which stands at the opposite end of the picture. The centre is occupied by three couples, each consisting of a man and woman, the man stretched upon a couch, the woman seated on its edge with her feet upon a stool. Two of these women caress their companions, the third strikes a lyre, while a second musician stands in the middle of the room and plays the double flute. In front of each couch there is a low table with dishes upon it. A tree introduced on the extreme right tells us that the feast takes place in a garden. 2 (Monuments antiques de Cypre, p. 71); but we are here in full Greek mythology, and it is difficult to admit that an Egyptian symbol can have thus, as it were, clandestinely slunk in among personages of a totally different origin at the bidding of an artist in whose work we cannot find evidence of the slightest preoccupation of the kind. 1 GERHARD, Auserlesene Vase, plates 84-85. 2 CECCALDI tries to convince us that this scene represents the four ages of man. Here again we fear he has allowed his desire to find a meaning for the smallest detail to run away with him. In an excellent photograph, for which we have to thank General di Cesnola, we can find no appreciable difference in age between the three younger men ; in the bearded person on the left alone is there any sign of more advanced years. It seems, therefore, more simple to regard this relief as an ordinary conventional picture of life as a festive scene, like those found on not a few Etruscan sarcophagi, notably on the splendid specimen from Cervetri in the British Museum.