Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/164

 148 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. simulacrum was repeated on the sacred stone, where, the better to emphasize the meaning, the hair was added. The Phoenicians now and again made use of this very same abridged process for those stelas which Carthage manufactured in prodigious numbers ; where Tanith is figured, now standing, now reduced to a mere bust, whilst at other times the divine representation is reduced to a head wreathed in plaits of hair arranged as those of our Cybele. 1 The whole difference consists in this, that whilst the superior skill of the Phoenician sculptor enabled him to chalk in with a few strokes nose, eyes, chin, etc., his Phrygian colleague suppressed every detail and carried simpli- fication to its utmost limits. Are the two heads (Fig. 106) figured on the stela emblematic of the worship rendered here to twin paredre deities, or is the repeti- tion intended to convey the notion of the power of one and the same divine personage ? The answer to this query might per- chance be had, could the Phrygian inscription of two lines incised on the wall dominating the sacred stone be read. 2 No translation of the text, however, has yet been made, and, more- over, it seems pretty certain that we possess but the half, and that other two lines were protracted on the right-hand side of the stela. But all this part of the monument has been detached by an earth- quake or the action of the weather. One side being intact, it would be an easy matter to restore the other. In its original state the monument, though simple, was not void of a certain degree of dignity. In some respects these hypaethral shrines recall the high places of Syria and Palestine ; 3 they differ from them in that neither stone altar nor bcetulus were left in the rough, but have been fashioned o ' by metal implements. The Phrygians do not seem to have been imbued with the notion that contact with forged iron would pollute the stone and rob it of its sacred character. Hence they freely used pick and chisel to excavate small temples, akin to the Egyptian specs, close by these open places of worship. It is a sanctuary 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iii. Fig. 16. 2 Consult RAMSAY, On the Early Historical Relations, Plate I. n. 6, p. 33. 8 Hist, of Art, torn. iv. pp. 37!, 372, 375-385. We are all familiar with the following passages : " So Moses commanded the children of Israel to build an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up an iron." Again : " Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them," e.g. stones to build an altar. TRS.