Nos. 3-7. Terra-Cotta Cows, from Tiryns. Actual size.
Nos. 8-11. Terra-Cotta Idols from Tiryns. Actual size.
EXCAVATIONS AT TIRYNS.
"It must, however, be borne in mind that the Egyptian representation was not with the eyes, but with the full countenance and head, of the ox or cow; and further, that the Homeric epithet is not confined to Herè, but is applied to Klumené, one of the attendants of Helen,[55] and to Philomedousa, wife of Areithoos.[56] It is likewise given to Halié, one of the Nereid Nymphs.[57] The inference, probable though not demonstrative, would seem to be that in Homer's time the epithet had come to bear its later and generalised sense, and that the recollection of the cow had worn away."
I therefore do not hesitate to declare that both the cows and the horned female figures found at Mycenæ and Tiryns must needs be idols of Hera, who was the tutelar deity of both cities.
All the above idols, in the form of a cow and of a horned female, were found at a depth of from 3 to 11½ feet below the surface, and none at a greater depth.
Several terra-cotta idols of a different form were found; one of them at a depth of 8 feet.[58] This also seems to be a female idol; its two hands are joined on the breast, as if in the attitude of prayer; the head, which is uncovered, exactly resembles a bird's head, and at the first glance one is involuntarily struck by the resemblance of this idol to those on one of the many painted figures of the Attic vases with geometrical patterns which are preserved in the small collection of antiquities in the Ministry of Public Instruction at Athens,[59] and which have been until now considered to be the most ancient pottery in Greece. But I hope to prove in the subsequent pages that this is a great mistake, and that they must belong to a later period.
Of the idol No. 11 there remain only the neck and the head, which very much resembles an owl's head.