Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/241

 198 PRIMITIVK GrEI£CE : MVCKNIAN AuT. perhaps a shield.' Spear and shield are gone ; but a proof of their existence is afforded, at least for the Mycenian statuette, by a slight indentation seen on the fore-arm, close to the elbow, which marks the place where the shield rested. Even without this, the whole attitude of the figure is so expressive and spirited as to suggest a bellicose action. On the head is carried a helmet terminating in a large button. There is no button at Mycen^e, whilst the surface of the Tirynthian figure is seamed by horizontal stria;. Fastened round the waist is a broad band, which serves to fix a square piece of cloth, passed between the legs from the back, and caught up in front. As numbers of antiquities will show, this species of drawers was ihe only item of dress which the men of that day wore during their active life, in the chase or war. We rather guess than see it in the Tirynthian bronze ; but it is discernible in the Mycenian speci- men, and quite distinct in a small lead figure from Abbia, in Laconia, where it was discovered among the ruins of a domed- ' M. E. Gardner sees an abbreviation of the armed god in certain stone objects which have been collected at Mycenre and elsewhere, nearly In the shapu of a shield formed by two circles slightly intersecting ; in our opinion he has failed to invest his hypothesis with any great degree of probability {Palladia from Mycaue, Hellenic Studies).