Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/227

 204 Pkimitivk Grkkce: MvciiNiAN Art. hogs, and porcupines. Even when the aim of the potter is less ambitious, the relative elegance and variety of his ceramic types reveal a mind on the alert. This is evidenced in long-necked jugs, in shapely goblets with graceful curves and bold, out-stand- ing handles, in drinking-cups joined together at their middle, etc. He sometimes fashioned his local deities in gold or stone, but more frequently still in the clay ready to his hand. The least shapeless of these betray a clumsy effort to copy, if not the human face and body, at least to suggest them by some arbitrary indications. Clay lends itself kindly to translating the early religious concepts of this community, and is no less docile in yielding shapes suitable to the exigencies of a social status which is beginning to exhibit a certain measure of refinement and complexity. Two specimens will suffice. A terra-cotta plaque Klu. S3.— Bnwli-handle of was found with three perforations, one of which still retained a large hook clearly intended to be fastened to a wall ; it was a hook-stand on which were hung weapons or clothes.' The next is a diminutive, three-sided pyramid of yellow clay, with a hole for suspension, and a number of fine holes at its base (Fig. 53). The only explanation and also the most plausible which has been put forward as to the probable destination of this peculiar object, is its having served as a clothes-brush. Small bundles of silk ^ were passed through the holes, and constituted the brush proper. Such pieces are rare ; on the other hand, from this same stratum, flat discs, commonly called fusaioles or whorls, came by thousands (Fig. 54). Whilst employing the term "whorl," we wish the reader to understand that we do so provisionally, and hope later to prove that the services demanded of them were of ' ScHUCHAKDT, SiAUemaun's Ausgrabungeii. ^ More probably stalks of plants. — Trans.