WONDERFUL GOLD PLATES.
No. 471 represents nearly the same subject: we see again a lion running at full speed and catching a stag, which is represented with the body turned towards his pursuer and with his head in the opposite direction; he stands on his hind-legs, into which the lion, with open jaws, is just biting. The fore-feet of the stag are uplifted, and his lower feet protrude at a right angle from the knee. Just before the uplifted loins of the stag we see the wide-open jaws of a large cow-head with two long horns of the crescent form and two enormous eyes, to which I call particular attention. Between the two large horns we see two smaller ones, the space between which is filled with small objects in the form of figs; similar objects are seen between the small and the large horns. Though the artist has given us a front view of the cow-head, yet he represents its jaws in profile. To the right of the cow-head we see five long palm-fronds, below which, in the corner to the right of the spectator, is an object which I cannot recognise; it resembles a bird's foot.
The whole scene certainly appears to be symbolic.
I think there can be no reasonable doubt that the cow-head represents Hera Boöpis,[359] the patron deity of Mycenæ, and that when, in later times, this goddess received a female head, her enormous cow's eyes alone survived of her former cow-shape; because her sole characteristic epithet βοῶπις, consecrated as it was by the use of ages, was thenceforward indiscriminately used for both goddesses and mortal women to designate large eyes. Thus, for example, Clymene, one of Helen's female servants, is called by Homer ox-eyed[360] (βοῶπις). Hera's representation here, with a double pair of horns and the fruits between the four horns, can, I think, have no other purpose than to glorify her. I further believe that the lion represents the house of the Pelopids, and perhaps Agamemnon himself, and that the stag represents a sacrifice offered by the lion (the house of the Pelopids or Agamemnon himself) to the patron deity of the town, and the open jaws of the cow-head may have the meaning that she benignantly receives the sacrifice.
The remaining plate (No. 472) represents the same spiral ornamentation which we have so frequently passed in review.
To the reverse side of these wonderful golden plates there sticks a good deal of a blackish matter, perhaps a sort of cement, which must have served to attach them to flat pieces of wood, on each side of which must have been one plate. This opinion seems also to be confirmed by the marks of nails which we see in the rims of the plates, for the nails can, of course, only have been used to fasten them to a softer substance.
No. 472. Gold Plate, with a spiral ornamentation in Intaglio. Sepulchre I. Actual size.
MASSIVE GOLD MASK.
No. 473 represents the massive golden mask of the same body at the north end of the first tomb;[361] unfortunately, the lower part of the forehead has been so much pressed upon the eyes and the nose, that the face is disfigured, and the features cannot be well distinguished. Highly characteristic is the large round head, the enormous forehead, and the small mouth with the thin lips.