Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/536

 General Characteristics oe the Mvcenian Period. 479 Egypt by a sea that can be easily crossed in fine weather. The mariner who sails southward from Crete finds himself nearing the low beach of the Delta, almost as soon as he loses sight of the snow-capped mountains of his own island home ; whilst a narrow sound alone intervenes between Cyprus and Phoenicia ; the latter, as is well known, was for a long time like a province of the Pharaohs. There were, then, plenty of opportunities for intercourse between Egypt and Phoenicia on the one side, and on the other with the -^gean clans. This much being clear, it remains to consider whether we can prove that such relations did actually exist as far back as the Mycenian period. The answer will have to come from the Egyptian quarter, for there alone shall we find documents of an authentic character. Now these relate — and their testimony is scarcely open to doubt — that between 1550 and 1500 b.c, in the age of Thothmes III., the ** Great Verdant isles and those in mid-sea" were among the countries dependent upon Egypt ; whilst on the stela of Thothmes the name of "Asi," i.e. Cyprus, occurs.^ Very similar formula:^ return in the inscriptions of Amenophis III. and Amenophis IV. ; they re-appear towards 1350 b.c, in the reign of Ramses II., of whom the Greeks said that he had subdued the Cyclades. Was ^ Stela of Thothmes. The monuments of the age of this prince repeatedly mention functionaries into whose hands the tribute of these insular populations was paid. Thus, on a gold cup preserved in the Louvre Museum, the royal scribe Tehuti says of himself that he is the trusted minister of the king for foreign parts, notably for the "mid-sea islands" (Birch-Chabas, Memoire sur line patere egyptienne). The name also occurs in another inscription from the Rekhmara tomb, of both the Rutennu and the northern people occupying the country to the rear of the ** Most Verdant" (Mediterranean), together with the Kaft (Phcenicians), and the inhabitants of the " Most Verdant," who bring their tribute, chiefly composed of gold and silver vases, ewers, craters, etc. Their dress consists either of a striped petticoat or one broidered with many colours, and shoes fastened around the legs with thongs (Virey, Le Tombeau de Rekhmard ; Memoires de la mission francaise). The epigraph, although mutilated, can for the most part be easily restored. It reads as follows: "The Kaft chieftains and those of the islands come in peace, bringing their tribute on their shoulders. When they heard of the victories of his Majesty Thothmes over all the peoples [of the earth], they forthwith bent their back and inclined their head before his souls."* We hear of the isles in the middle of the sea down to the time of Amenophis (Roseluni, Monumenti storict), whose ships sail out to sea and bring the tributes of all the nations (Maspero, V Inscription didicatoire du temple d'Abydos). [* His effigies, portraits, statues — or force, spirit, energy, as evidenced in his acts. — Trans.]