Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/240

 Idols. 197 pression made upon him by the apparition? If the hypothesis be allowed, the statuette would not represent a goddess, but a worshipping priestess. A second conjecture is yet possible. Everybody knows that the eye sees better and farther when sheltered from the blinding rays of the sun. Was the attitude meant to indicate a far-seeing goddess, before whom the heart of man is an open book, who reads the past, the present, and the future — Qu£ sunt, qu% fuerunt, quge mox ventura trahantur ? In the marble statuette series, male figures are exceedingly I rare, and of a somewhat confused character. Hence it cannot be advanced with certainty that the islanders had evolved a male deity at that early date ; but the type was certainly in existence in the palmy -days of the Achaian lordship over Argolis ; for we find a male god represented, with insignificant modifications, on two small bronzes, one from Tiryns (Fig. 349), and the other from Mycence (Fig. 350).' The personage stands erect, as if walking, his left foot carried boldly forward. The right arm, bent at the elbow, is raised and thrown back, as if brandishing a spear. The left arm, which is outstretched and level with the waist, carried • It is tigured by Schliemann (Tiryns). But a better drawing of it appeared in the 'E^iifupie ; where, too, M. Tsoundas brought the Mycenian specimen to the knowledge of the world.