Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/229

 Primitive Greece: Myceniak Art. broken in twain, the head being separated from the body. In this collection I noticed two figures that may possibly belong to the male sex, but am not quite sure ; on the head of one is a conical cap. It is an indubitable fact that if a male deity makes here, his appearance with the early attempts of this art, and in Peloponnesus towards the end of the archaic period, it is equally certain that the male type was far less common than the female. The latter never lost its hold on the imagination and regard of these peoples. If its characteristics are confused and ill-defined in the broken terra-cotta idols that came from the third settlement which was excavated at Hissarlik in 1890 (Fig. 23i)i the curious clay variants of this type found in the Argolic vaults are far more distinct. Here is a woman with a babe in her arms (Fig. 334) ; a flat cap, clearly the prototype of the TToXoy of the later Greek goddesses, covers her head ; a long plait of hair falls down her back and reaches below the waist. The arms are limp and shapeless, mere ropes bending and twisting at will. On her shoulder is carried an indistinct object ;