No. 163. The two faces of a Granite Mould for casting various Ornaments. (4 M.) Actual size.
HERA-IDOLS COMMON IN ACROPOLIS.
COW-HEADS ON VASE-HANDLES.
In the Acropolis the most common idols are those of Hera as a woman with horns or in the shape of a cow. In fact, they are so abundant that up to this time I have been able to gather more than (say) 700 of them, but all are more or less mutilated. Among the forms of the idols found abundantly in the Acropolis I must further mention that with a round uncovered bird's head,[208] and that with a very compressed head, with large eyes, and a polos in the form of a bowl, on which is often painted a cross; both these idols hold their hands on the breasts, and have no characteristic of the cow.[209] I may further mention the very frequently occurring idol, the whole middle part of which is in the form, or nearly so, of a disk,[210] and which may have been intended primitively to represent the full moon, because Hera was originally the moon-goddess, and her cow-horns, and subsequently her whole cow-character, cannot but be derived from the symbolic horns of the crescent moon. Lastly, I have to mention the less frequent female idol with a perfectly modelled cow-head; but this type is only found on the handles of vases, and the body of the woman is always incomplete, never reaching further down than the breast, and frequently finishing with the neck, on which the necklace is never forgotten.[211] By a strange coincidence the three or four terra-cotta cow-heads found in Troy were likewise on the handles of vases.[212] One headless Hera-idol was found, with two well preserved horns and two breasts. The head is not broken off, for it was never intended to have a head. I may also mention that many perfectly flat idols were found, showing on each side a head with a long muzzle and large eyes in profile, but no indication of horns. (See No. 161.[213])
ORNAMENTS OF GLAZED CLAY.
Except the button with a gold plate, already mentioned, no objects of gold or silver have been found yet; but that these metals were in extensive use cannot be doubted. I found a mould consisting, according to Professor Xavier Landerer, of very fine dark red granite; it shows on both sides together fourteen different fanciful types of earrings and other ornaments, all of which were probably cast in gold or silver (see No. 162). I found also a smaller mould, which consists, according to the same Professor, of basalt, and is in form of a cube (see No. 163): it has on all the six sides moulds for casting ornaments, of which the types may be seen in the engravings; amongst others, it has a type for casting small cones with parallel horizontal circles, of which I find here a large number. (See No. 164.) They consist of a lustrous blackish mass, which Professor Landerer has analysed and found to consist of a hard-baked clay which has been varnished with a lead glaze. Mr. Newton also kindly showed me, among the objects found in the tomb at Ialysus, very small cones with parallel horizontal circles of the very same composition as these Mycenean cones. I also very frequently find here small disks of the same composition, with impressed flowers or other ornamentation, which must have served as ornaments on the doors or elsewhere (No. 165), and these also figure in the British Museum among the objects from the tomb of Ialysus. The quadrangular piece (No. 166), on which may be seen a very well-represented cuttle-fish between two vertical borders with teeth-like cuts, has four perforations for attaching it with pins. As I have already mentioned, the object No. 167, which has the form of a mushroom, but a perforation in its whole length, is of the same material; this also must have served as an ornament, while the whole tube-like lower part was sunk into the object which was to be ornamented, so that the head alone protruded, and may have served to put in a flower or something else. Of the same baked clay with a varnished lead glaze there was further found a large perforated bead (No. 168).
No. 163. Four faces of a six-sided Mould of Basalt. (5 M.) Actual size.