Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/547

 490 Additions and Corrections. II. p. 344. Max Mayer {Mykenische BeitragCy I. Stierfangy in Jahrbuchy 1892) engraves a curious chip from Mycenae, which he rightly compares with the first Vaphio goblet and the Tirynthian frieze. All that remains of the wild-bull chase figured on it are the upper part of a bull and the man he has tossed. He also recognizes a hunting-scene on a scrap from a box of greenish stone, apparently of the same period. >Ve hold to our opinion, in despite of the objections that may be raised against it, to the effect that in the Tirynthian frieze the painter intended to portray a man running at the side of the bull, and not vaulting on his back or launched in the air, II. p. 380. According to M. Augier, keeper of the Clot-Bey collection, the Marseilles ewer (Fig. 477) was purchased at Alexandria by its present owner, and said to have been picked up at Tyre. M. Augier found it in the Clot-Bey collection as far back as 1 846, when he became keeper. II. p. 399. A vase bought for the British Museum in 1889 {Arch. Anzeiger^ 1890) must greatly resemble the specimen from Pitane which I publish. It is thus described : Clay vase in Mycenian style, with the figure of a huge polyp. The space between the tentacles is filled with horses, stags, birds, porcupines, and other animals. Origin : Calymna. II. p. 408. The hypothesis as to the superstitions connected with the cuttle-fish is, we think, indirectly confirmed by Clearchus de Soli, in a curious passage which Athenseus reproduces (vii. 317, A). "In by-gone days," says Clearchus, "it was unlawful at Traezen and the neighbourhood to catch polyps of any kind, either thit which is called * sacred,' or sea porpoises or swimming polyps." In the term '* sacred," under which this particular polyp is known, and the defence of destroying it, should we not see the survival of primitive beliefs which, as it seems to me, are expressed in the decoration of the Pitane vase ? The above text is cited by Karl Tuera|)el in his dissertation entitled, Der Mykenische Polyp und die Hydra {Festschrift fin Johannes Overbeck^ 4to, 1893, Engelmann). He has also published, Die Muschei der Aphrodite {Philologus, n. s., t. v. 1892). M. Tuempel finds a connecting-link between the choice of the figures in question and certain ancient religious conceptions. II. p. 410. In the Neuchatel Museum are Mycenian vases which have come from graves excavated at Ithaca and Cephalonia (Von Duhn, H. Schliemann, in Neue Heidelberger JaJirbiicher^ t. i.). II. p. 412. On the result of the recent researches carried out at Troy at the ex- pense of Mdme. Schliemann and the concurrence of the German government, see the report which M. Dorpfeld has just published {Die neuen Ausgrabungen in Troja^ in Athenische Mitt/ieilungen, t. xviii.). II. chap. xii. As these pages were ready for the press, we received a disserta- tion by E. Reisch entitled, Die Mykenisclu Frage { Verhandlungen der 42 Philologen Versammlung). We had no time for careful perusal, but as far as we can judge from a cursory glance we find ourselves in perfect agreement with him on all essential points. His conclusions relating to the character of Mycenian civilization are practically the same as ours. Like us, he sees in the builders of the Cyclopaean walls of Argolis and the cupola-tombs of Eastern Greece the direct ancestors of the Hellenes. With us, too, M. Reisch places the beginnings of the Epos towards the end of the Mycenian period. In it are to be found allusions to events and individual characters, to artistic inventions which belong to that epoch. It is needless to give his conclusions, which the reader can guess for himself.