Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/395

 342 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. of a cuirass or justaucorps, which was worn over the dress. All the warriors carry long spears. As far as these faded relics will enable us to judge, the artist had figured around the public room the companions-in-arms of the chieftain, those he was wont to have about him, to share both in the convivialities of the banquet and the deliberations of political import. A fragment from the neighbourhood of a house close to the south wall of the acropolis may not unlikely have belonged to a hunting-scene {Fig. 90, e). It represents three monsters carry- ing a long pole on their shoulders, which they steady with the Fit;. 430. — Fragment uf luuial ^aiming. right hand (Fig. 431). The extremities of the pole are not indicated ; but depending therefrom we divine heads of large game, lions, wild bulls, or stags. Our conjecture is corroborated by the authority of many gems (Figs. 421, 8 ; 425. 15).' As in the similar portrayals seen on engraved stones, to a man's bust and arms the painter has added the head and long ears of an ass. The mane, apparently divided into plaits, falls on the back, and a band is about the waist. The head is whole ; and on the top will be noticed a tight curl or ring, which, it will be remembered, forms the distinctive feature of the Mycenian griffin. The lower part of the body is entirely obliterated ; we cannot, therefore, even hazard a guess as to the species of 1 Milchofer has given many other examples of figures of the same nature taken from intaglios {Anfdnge).