Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/249

 2o6 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. better mechanical appliances than one would be tempted to believe from the rough appearance of their sculpture, is proved by the existence of these instruments. Whether or not they originally borrowed the (^a/t^ti$, like their deities, from the popu- lations of Asia Minor, it is certain that they had a music of their own ; and, in all likelihood, religious chants sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. In other words, they had left barbarism far behind them. Modern historians, taking literally certain statements to be found in ancient writers, to the effect that the flute and the music allied thereto were introduced into Hellas at a compara- tively recent period through the medium of Ionian cities situated in the Hermus and Maeander valleys, in relation with Phrygia, where tradition placed the origin of the instrument, have often seemed disposed to believe as an established fact mere passing allusions that will not bear looking into. Our statuettes demon- strate that the borrowing, if there was borrowing, leads back to a more remote period, of which tradition itself had preserved no remembrance. Representations of Hitman Life, re/atino^ to Scenes of Battle and t/ie Chase. Among all the finds relating to the plastic labours of the tribes settled on the shores of the Hellespont and the Cyclades,. the pair of musicians are the only figures which do not bear the character of idols ; nevertheless, they may be held to belong to the simulacrum of the goddess, in that they represent worshippers who honour her with their songs even in the world of shades. In Eastern Hellas, especially Argolis, where was laid the scene of the unfolding of this primitive civilization, plastic art enlarged the field of its aspirations and creative activity. But it did not cease on that account to produce divine images without number. Yet in so doing, if it modified them at all, it was so exceedingly slowly as to render the change imperceptible except in the most recent images, those belonging to the last days of that period, and consequently the most advanced. These societies,