Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/511

 454 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. has reached us from the graves on the acropolis ; of these the finest examples are given in Pis. XVII. to XIX. They also occur in the lower city of Vaphio. The Mycena? axe is sometimes single/ sometimes double-edged, with a hole in the middle for the handle.- A curious specimen from Vaphio is crescent-shaped ; it is represented on an intaglio, where it is carried by a long- robed personage, perhaps a sacrificial priest (Fig. 424, 4).' The two large holes with which the crescent is pierced serve to explain a passage in the Odyssey that had long baffled the in- genuity of connnentators.* It enables us to grasp why Ulysses' arrow sped right through a dozen or so of axes sot in a line t'lr.. 544.— lironie axe. lIciRhl, 145 c. in the courtyard of the palace. They were similar to the one wc print above (Fig. 544).' No remains of defensive armour have been found at Troy, Cyprus, or the Cyclades. A gold plate, with a lion's head en- graved on it, which Schliemann mistook for a funereal mask, has been identified as the central ornament of a shield." The edge of the plate still preserves the holes for the nails that served to fix it to a wooden board ; as an emblematic and decorative ' Schliemann, MyfetKF. '' Ibid. ^ A Lydian ornament is similarly shaped (History of Art). C. Beij^fr, B(ii. phil. Woelienuhrifl, 1890. " Schliemann, Afymue.
 * Odyssey.
 * The connection between the tvfo sets of axes lias been jtointed out by