Notes on the Cretan Griffin

H. Frankfort

doi:10.1017/S0068245400018025

Notes on the Cretan Griffin

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013

H. Frankfort

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In the No-man's land between Aegean and Euphrates we find in the second millennium B.C. a monster unknown in earlier times. Without antecedents it succeeded in penetrating the homeland of monsters, Mesopotamia, where it became so thoroughly acclimatised as to outnumber within a few centuries all but the most vigorous native breeds. It also played an important part in the religious imagery of Minoan Crete and in the decorative art of Mycene, whilst occasionally penetrating Egypt and Anatolia. Its appearance suggests an aptitude to insinuate itself: the leonine body ends, not in the blunt head of the great cat, but in a tapering bird's head; and the threat of the formidable beak is masked by a graceful crest.

Type: Research Article
Information: Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 37 , November 1937 , pp. 106 - 122

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400018025 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1937

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^{page 106 note 1} See Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux, Musée du Louvre pls. 44, 10; 45, 2 for photographs.

^{page 107 note 1} Frankfort, Cylinder Seals pp. 132 ff.; the other Early Dynastic seal with the birdman is in Baghdad: IM, 2479.

^{page 107 note 2} E.g., Budge, Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, XXXVII.

^{page 108 note 1} Archiv für Orientforschung XII 128 ff.

^{page 108 note 2} Andrae, Coloured Ceramics from Ashur Pl. III.

^{page 108 note 3} See below.

^{page 110 note 1} Frankfort, Cylinder Seals pp. 273–83.—The difficulty lies in the fact that the area occupied by the kingdom of Mitanni was both before and afterwards subjected to influences from surrounding regions. None of the large sculptures found in the region can be assigned with certainty to Mitanni, and it is instructive to compare what Moortgat, Die bildende Kunst des alten Orients und die Bergvoelker pp. 39–70 and Contenau, La civilisation des Hittites et des Mitanniens pp. 111–20 declare to be Mitannian works of art.

^{page 110 note 2} Quibell, and Green, , Hierakonpolis II Pl. XXVIII.Google Scholar

^{page 111 note 1} Borchardt, , Das Grabdenkmal des Königs Sahure I 33Google Scholar; II Pl. 8 and p. 21. Idem, Grabdenkmal des Königs Neuserre p. 48.

^{page 112 note 1} Sethe, , Urgeschichte und älteste Religion der Aegypter 185 and p. 21.Google Scholar

^{page 112 note 2} Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No. 47 p. 10.

^{page 113 note 1} Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement 1933 97.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 2} Alan Rowe, A Catalogue of Scarabs, Scaraboids, Seals and Amulets in the Palestine Archaeological Museum Nos. 215–31 244 etc. Petrie, , Buttons and Design Scarabs 341–4, 463–70 etc.Google Scholar Petrie's reading Erdara seems to me as gratuitous as the Ra-ne-Ra which he rejects (p. 17).

^{page 113 note 3} Evans, , Palace of Minos I 710 fig. 533c.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 4} Idem, id. IV 874.

^{page 113 note 5} Montet, Byblos et l'Egypte pls. XCIX, C (scimitars); XCVIII (Uraei), CII no. 655 (knife); CV nos. 701 703 (terminals of handles).

^{page 113 note 6} Montet, Byblos et l'Egypte pp. 174 ff.

^{page 114 note 1} Sir Arthur Evans claims (Palace of Minos III 112) an engraved dagger from Lasithi (MM II) as the ancestor of the Mycenaean daggers. This applies, however, only to the notion of ornamenting the blade with a hunting scene. No evidence is given that the engraving was ever inlaid with another metal, and even then there would be no question of niello.

^{page 114 note 2} In addition to a general similarity of subject (cats hunting wild fowl in papyrus thicket) there is a curiously ‘unrealistic’ feature in the capturing by one cat of two ducks with front-paws and hindlegs at the time, which is quite in keeping with the ideoplastic art of Egypt and, in fact, occurs often in the tomb paintings e.g. the Theban fragment in the British Museum.

^{page 114 note 3} Steindorff, Die Kunst der Aegypter p. 303 b.

^{page 114 note 4} Andrae, Coloured Ceramics from Ashur Pl. 5.

^{page 114 note 5} The Museum Journal XXIII pls. LX LXI.

^{page 114 note 6} Starr, R. F. S., Nuzi II pls. 78, 79.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 7} Illustrated London News 15 October 1938 pp. 698 699.

^{page 114 note 8} Sherds at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.

^{page 114 note 9} Illustrated London News 9 October 1937 pp. 604, 605; 17 September 1938 p. 504. The term ‘Atchana ware’ and the repeated reference to a ‘hitherto unknown painted ware’ are, of course, highly inappropriate. The problem presented by the incommensurate philological and archaeological material is formulated by Smith, Sidney in Antiquity XII (1938), 425 ff.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 10} Starr, , Nuzi II pls. 128 129.Google Scholar

^{page 115 note 1} Karo, Die Schachtgraeber von Mykenai pp. 270 ff.

^{page 115 note 2} This ‘signe royal’ has been recently discussed by Kurt Bittel and Hans Gustav Güterbock, Bogazköy (Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Jahrgang 1935 Phil. Hist. Kl. 1), pp. 41 f.

^{page 115 note 3} Georg Möller, Die Metallkunst der alten Aegypter pl. 6.

^{page 115 note 4} This subject has been studied by Demargne, Pierre in Revue Archéologique 1936 80 ff.Google Scholar; Annales de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes de Gand Tome II (1938) 31–66, and by Dussaud, Réné, in Iraq VI (1939), 53–66.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 115 note 5} Syria IX (1928), 16.

^{page 116 note 1} So Hall, Ancient History of the Near East p. 218; but Breasted, History of Egypt p. 218 thinks of an empire while Meyer, Ed., Gesch. d. Alt. II 2Google Scholar, 43 not only conjures up Attila and Dzenghis Khan, but also (p. 54) postulates a marriage between Aahotep and king of Crete and assigns to their combined forces the overthrow of the Hyksos.

^{page 116 note 2} Evans, , Palace of Minos I 549 III 41.Google Scholar

^{page 116 note 3} Id. I 712 fig. 536.

^{page 116 note 4} The ‘saffron-gatherer’ is dated by Sir Arthur Evans to MM II, but this early date is decidedly not proved, and seems to me improbable. See Snijder Kretische Kunst pp. 27 ff.

^{page 116 note 5} For further details see Francis G. Newton Memorial Volume, The Mural Painting of El Amarna pp. 19 ff. 24.

^{page 117 note 1} v. Syria 1937 Pl. XXXIX.

^{page 117 note 2} Evans, , Palace of Minos II 778 Fig. 506.Google Scholar

^{page 118 note 1} Frankfort, Cylinder Seals pp. 252–8.

^{page 119 note 1} This circumstance is not taken into account by Moortgat in his treatment of our griffin in Die Bildende Kunst des alten Orients und die Bergvoelker pp. 39–47.

^{page 119 note 2} S. F. A. Schaeffer, The Cuneiform Texts of Ras Shamra-Ugarit pl. XVII 2.

^{page 119 note 3} Montet, Byblos et l'Egypte pl. CXLII No. 878.

^{page 119 note 4} Idem, Les reliques de l'art Syrien dans l'Égypte du Nouvel Empire 131 fig. 172.

^{page 119 note 5} In addition to these works there are griffins on a large number of Syrian seals of the Second and Third Groups, and a number, probably of Cypriote origin, which cannot yet be properly distinguished. Some examples: Frankfort, Cylinder Seals pl. XLV g, i.

^{page 119 note 6} Montet, , Reliques de l'art Syrien XXXX 111–14 172.Google Scholar He rightly stressess in this case, as in that of the bitch- or sow-like sphinx which is occasionally depicted in Egypt from the time of Amenhotep III onward, the importance of the round medallion worn round the neck and which is shown already on the bowl from Ras Shamra referred to in note 2 above; Asiatic examples occur at widely scattered places and times, e.g. Syria XVIII (1937), pl. XVIII; Ghirshman Fouilles de Tepe Giyan, Pl. 15, tomb 38; Iraq IV Pl. XIIIA, while in Egypt this simplest type of pendant is practically unknown at all periods.

^{page 120 note 1} Evans, , Palace of Minos II 534–5.Google Scholar

^{page 120 note 2} Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1926 689 ff.

^{page 121 note 1} Delaporte, Catalogue des cylindres orientaux … musée du Louvre, 197, no. A-927.

^{page 122 note 1} Frankfort, The Cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos p. 73 text D.

^{page 122 note 2} R. Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish pp. 38–9; more recently a fuller rendering has been given by A. Schott Das Gilgamesh Epos pp. 48–9.

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