In like manner, when excavations shall be made in the Heræum between Argos and Mycenæ, and on the site of the very ancient temple of Hera on the island of Samos, the image of this goddess with a cow’s head will doubtless be found upon idols, cups and vases; for “βοῶπις” the usual epithet of Hera in Homer, can originally have signified nothing else than “with the face of an ox.” But as Homer also sometimes applies the epithet βοῶπις to mortal women, it is probable that even at his time it was considered to be bad taste to represent Hera, the wife of the mightiest of all the gods, with the face of an ox, and that therefore men even at that time began to represent her with a woman’s face, but with the eyes of an ox, that is, with very large eyes; consequently the common epithet of βοῶπις, which had formerly been only applied to Hera with the meaning of “with the face of an ox,” now merely signified with large eyes.
Of pottery we have found a great deal during the last weeks, but unfortunately more than half of it in a broken condition. Of painting upon terra-cotta there is still no trace; most of the vessels are of a simple brilliant black, yellow, or brown colour; the very large vases on the other hand are generally colourless. Plates of ordinary manufacture I have as yet found only at a depth of from 8 to 10 meters (26 to 33 feet), and, as can be distinctly seen, they have been turned upon a potter’s wheel. All the other vessels hitherto found seem, however, to have been formed by the hand alone; yet they possess a certain elegance, and excite the admiration of beholders by their strange and very curious forms. The vases with a long neck bent back, a beak-shaped mouth turned upwards, and a round protruding body[113]—two of which are in the British Museum, several of those found in Cyprus in the Museum in Constantinople, and several of those discovered beneath three layers of volcanic ashes in Thera and Therassia in the French school in Athens—are almost certainly intended to represent women, for I find the same here at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, with two or even with three breasts, and hence I believe that those found here represent the tutelary goddess of Ilium. We also find some vases and covers with men’s faces, which, however, are never without some indications of the owl; moreover, the vases with such faces always have two female breasts and a navel. I must draw especial attention to the fact that almost all of the vases with owls’ faces, or with human faces and the indications of the owl, have two uplifted arms, which serve as handles, and this leads me to conjecture that they are imitations of the large idol which was placed in the very ancient temple of the Ilian divinity, which therefore must have had an owl’s face, but a female figure, and two arms beside the head. It is very remarkable that most of the vessels which I find have been suspended by cords, as is proved by the two holes in the mouth, and the two little tubes, or holes in the handles, at the side of the vessels.