Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/254

 Representations of Human Life. 211 the dread weapon which the hero had known so well how to handle. With the boldness of youthful inexperience he stuck it where he could. Clearly it was the spectator's affair to replace it in the hand accustomed to wield it against the common foe. The drawing on this stela is more incorrect than in any other; the head, and perhaps one of the driver's arms, are missing, so that the difficulties of reading the scene are much increased. The remaining hand holds the rein ; was a spear grasped in the left, and levelled at the figure of the man in front of the horse ? Or were the parts reversed, and did the foot-soldier brandish his weapon against the charioteer ? A main reason which would lead me to discard this hypothesis is that I cannot conceive it possible that the sculptor would have left the spectators to puzzle out as they might the issue of a combat in which the prince was engaged. Attentive examination of the original leads to the inference that he who handles the spear is the owner of the chariot. His lance stops short as it meets the foot-soldier, to re-appear behind his back. All the probabilities, then, are in favour of our explanation. The scene is a war-scene, in which the king is represented spearing his adversary, whom he has overtaken owing to the swiftness of his horse. A fourth stela is incomplete ; the whole of the left division has been broken off. By piecing together the extant pieces Reichel has made up three horses enframed by scrolls who are seen gallop- ing towards the right. They stand one above the other, because the artist was unable to place them on the same plane. We have adverted more than once to such a conventional perspective which crops up here and there among different nationalities. Another fragment shows the fore-quarters of two horses.^ This has also beea published by Schliemann, but he failed to grasp the whole figuration. Did there exist a chariot or a warrior on the missing part to the left ? We know not. A horse running full gallop is the only distinguishable item on a bit from a fifth cippus ; whilst a man's arm, who brandishes a great sword, and the hind legs of a horse belong to a sixth. We divine here a scene similar to those just described. The remaining fragments are so small that they cannot be put together to form a continuous ornament or figure ; they show here a wheel, there indications in the different attitudes of men engaged in racing or fighting. One
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