Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/58

36 which appears to be a kind of term diminishing towards its base. Such an arrangement of a pair of animals reminds us of several of the primitive types of Asiatic Deities, and especially of the figure called by Pausanias, the Persian Artemis.

On the other hand, it is certain that the archaic type under which the Greeks represented their deities was that of a term or column, with or without a head. It is therefore probable that the object between the two lions is such a sacred symbol. It has been justly remarked, that the lions' heads, now broken away, must have looked outward, not at each other, as there would not otherwise be room for them within the angular recess in which they stand. Such an attitude at once suggests the idea that they are placed over the gate as sentinels to keep watch and ward; and it is through this motive that the ancients constantly placed hons at the entrance to tombs. Hence it seems probable that the term placed between these two lions is the symbol of some tutelary deity, the guardian either of the city gate or of the city itself. Mure and several of the German archaeologists suppose this term to represent Apollo Agyieus, "the guardian of ways." Göttling suggests that it may be Hermes Pyledokos, or "the door-keeper."12

In illustration of this question it may be observed that over a gateway of the Carian city Mylassa may still be seen, sculptured on the keystone, the battle-axe, labrys, which was the special symbol of Jupiter Labrandensis, the tutelary deity of the Carian race, and which was placed in the hand of his statue in the temple at Labranda.