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Mystica Vannus Iacchi (continued)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Jane Ellen Harrison
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Extract

I must ask the readers of the Hellenic Journal to take the somewhat disjointed notes that follow strictly for what they are, namely, addenda to my paper in last year's Journal (vol. xxiii. 1903) on the ‘Mystica Vannus Iacchi.’

My object in writing that paper was to elucidate the mysticism of the ‘fan’ and thereby, I hoped, to throw some light on an obscure chapter in the history of Greek religion, namely the shift from the worship of Demeter to that of Dionysos. Incidentally it became necessary to examine the various forms of winnowing ‘fans.’ My personal interest in this necessary step in my argument was slight and my statement of evidence, I fear, inadequate and superficial. Since the appearance of the article many friendly critics have supplied me with material to fill the gaps left by my ignorance, and the examination of this material has not been without its use to me in clearing up some obscurities as to the mysticism of the fan.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 24 , November 1904 , pp. 241 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1904

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References

1 Mr. T. Ashby was good enough to obtain for me the excellent photograph reproduced in Fig. 1, and for permission to publish it I am indebted to the courtesy of Professor E. Brizio, director of the Museo Civico at Bologna. In the catalogue of the Museum (Museo Civico di Bologna, Catalogo di Antichità Egizio descritte dal Prof. Cav. Giovanni Kminek-Szedlo) the slab is described on p. 187, No. 1912, and the hieroglyphs are printed but no figure given. The monument formed part of the original collection at Bologna given by Pelagio Palagi, but nothing further appears to be known of its provenance. In the catalogue it is described as ‘frammento di stele in calcare, alto 0·67, largo 0·50.’ Mr. Petrie considers it to be a votive harvest tablet, complete.

2 Originals of both XIIth and XVIIIth dynasty were found by Petrie, at Kahun, (Kahun Gurob and Hawara, p. 29Google Scholar, Pl. IX, Fig. 11).

3 A sweeper is usually figured here.

4 The hieroglyph of the corn-measure however seems generally to have a rectangular outline, but good examples are rare. See also the scene of measuring incense in Naville Dêr el Bahari iii, Pl. LXXIX. Mr. Petrie notes that the modern Egyptian form agrees with that on the slab.

5 The title ‘measurers’ denotes a vocation or profession, not merely their action in the scene. The measurers must have been officials of the government or local administration or else representatives of some great landlord such as the temple of Ammôn of Thebes. The threshing was presumably done by the farmers whenever the measuring was for the administration. It is not easy to determine whether the offering to Thermuthis was part of the rejoicings of the farmers or made on behalf of the administration for a good revenue and large ‘measurement.’

6 For the name Thermuthis see Spiegelberg, , Aeg. u. Or. Eigennamen aus Mumienetiketten p. 12*Google Scholar.

7 For this and other details compare the scenes in the tomb of Paheri at El Kab (see Fig. 2), published by Tylor and Griffith in the XIth memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1894, Pl. III: also scenes in Wilkinson, , Ancient Egyptians (Birch's edition) Vol. II, p. 423Google Scholar, Prisse, Monuments, Pl. XLI (= Prisse, Art Égyptien, Tome II, Pl. 20).

8 The great tombs of the Middle Kingdom contain no winnowing scene of any interest. The Old Kingdom scenes are described by Erman, in his Aegypten pp. 574–5Google Scholar, with references: hand-scoops, sweepers, three-pronged forks (for winnowing?) and sieves are used, and in some cases a bowl on the corn-heap or on a stand near by probably contains an offering of first-fruits to Thermuthis. Unfortunately the reproduction of archaeological detail in the plates of Lepsius' Denkmäler is not quite trustworthy.

8a Eleventh Memoir, Egypt Exploration Fund, Tylor and Griffith, 1894. The Tomb of Puberi at El Kab, Pl. III, pp. 12—14. To this memoir I must refer for the full account of the paintings, and in it are given the text and translation of the delightful little songs to the labourers and even the oxen which alternate with the scenes depicted.

9 Dr.Petrie, Flinders, Kahun Gurob and Hawara, 1890Google Scholar; Kahun, p. 129, Pl. IX, 11; such shovels are found in tombs of the XIIth, and again of the XVIIIth dynasty.

9a Perrot and Chipiez, Ancient Egypt, Fig. 28.

10 Cambridge University Museum of general and local Arch. and Ethn. No. 1904, 61. The implements reproduced in Figs. 3–6, 8, and 10 are published by the kind permission of the Director of the Museum, Baron Anatole von Hügel, and the beautiful drawings from which they are reproduced I owe to the kindness of Mrs. Hugh Stewart and Miss Edith Crum.

11 The long-handled oven-shovel is known in English and Scotch dialect as a peel. In Old French pelle is from Latin pala. On a sarcophagus of Imperial date in the Medici garden at Rome a baker is represented putting a loaf into an oven with such a peel (Jahn, , Ber. d. sächs. Gesellschaft, 1861, Pl. XII. 1)Google Scholar. Mr. Paton tells me that he heard a Folk-tale recounted by a woman from Constantinople with the Odysseus incident included, and in it the winnowing-fan became a baker's peel! (φτυάρι τοῦ φοὑρνου). The shift from the country to the town implement is very natural.

12 As regards the spelling of the modern Greek form Mr. Bosanquet writes ‘I made out that θρινἁκι is the accepted Cretan form: θιρνάκι is dialect, probably confined to East Crete, θυρνάκι simply a misspelling.

13 Inv. 1904, 62. In this respect it is a contrast with the rough newly-hewn surface of the winnow-spade in Fig. 3, the brand-new condition of which has been skilfully shown in the drawing. The δικρἁνι of Crete had to be sawn across for convenience of transport and unhappily the handle portion was temporarily lost: this is indicated in the drawing by dotted lines.

14 Dauzat, , Le Tour du Monde, iii. pp. 155, 158Google Scholar. Dr. Martin Nilsson kindly tells me that in S. W. Sweden a three-pronged fork was in use of a shape I have not seen elsewhere: the handle continued formed the central prong and two short side-prongs parallel to the centre are attached by transverse bars forming a kind of lattice work.

15 Cambridge Museum of Arch. and Ethn. Inv. 1903, 63, brought from Abûshasheh in S. Palestine by Mr. MacAlister.

16 Hastings, Dict. of the Bible, s.v. Agriculture. Dr. Hastings kindly sent me the original drawing reproduced in Fig. 6.

17 Isaiah 30 24, in Delitzsch's commentary on Isaiah 2nd edit. pp. 707–709 the word rendered fan is explained as a six-pronged fork; and cf. Vogelstein, Landswirisehaft in Palästina, p. 68Google Scholar.

18 Savignoni, Monimenti dei Lincei, 1903Google Scholar, Tav. I and II.

19 Weill, , Rev. Arch. 1904, p. 52Google Scholar. Dr. Weill is chiefly concerned with the date and ethnical affinities of the vase. He concludes, ‘le vase de Phaestos appartient à cette période de l'apogée de la civilisation crétoise, dite période de Knossos. Les personnages représentées sur le vase sont des cousins des Oariens des Asianiques dont la figure nous est connue par les bas-reliefs égyptiens de la XXe dynastie.’

20 Jahrb., Anz. 1904, p. 76. Dr.Zahn's, Google Scholar theory of a ‘phallische Prozession’ seems to me improbable, but the full statement of his view is not yet published.

21 J.H.S. 1903, xxiii, p. 305, note 32, where Mr.Bosanquet's, view (J.H.S. xx. 1902, p. 389)Google Scholar is quoted.

22 Though Sig. Savignoni decides in favour of the axe the other alternatives occurred to him (see p. 88 of his monograph); speaking of the transverse instrument he says: ‘il che puo lasciare incerti se trattisi di ascia o di falce, od anche di piccone.’

23 From the supposed date of the vase we should expect a metal instrument, but the blade is halted into the wooden handle after the manner of a celt (see e.g. Ancient Stone Implements, Evans, Fig. 92).

24 The manner of this attachment is fully and exactly stated by Dr. Will in his paper, p. 54, note 1. Dr. Weill assumes that the metal object is a sickle and compares ‘l'ensemble de cet objet bizarre’ to a complex sickle, with osier cage to collect the ears, in use among the French peasantry. This instrument is unknown to me.

25 A curious celt with a hooked tip is figured by Sir John Evans, op. cit. Fig. 82, and there are hooked tips to some of the ‘cutting out knives’ published by Dr. Petrie (Methods and Aims of Archaeology, Fig. 11).

26 Mr. W. Crooke kindly tells me that in Northern India the fan or winnowing sieve ‘is called sūp, a word which comes from the Sanskrit shūrpa which again is derived from the root shūrp to measure.’ The Indian fan is figured by Mr. Crooke, s.v. sūp in his ‘Glossary of the N.W. Provinces.’ The shape is different from that of the French fans but the process of final winnowing is as described by Mr. Crooke, identical. The rough winnowing is done by men, the final cleansing with the sūp by women.

27 Hettner, Die Rämischen Steindenkmäler des Provinzialmuseums zu Trier (1893), p. 90Google Scholar. No. 193. My attention was drawn to this monument by the kindness of Dr. Hans Graeven.

28 Observed by Mrs. Hugh Stewart.

29 Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Skeat Coll. 510.

30 For Aristotle, on ἀναβρασμός see my previous article, J.H.S. xxiii, p. 300Google Scholar.

31 Clem. Al., Protr. II. 15Google Scholar. Τὰ σύμβολα τῆς μυήσεως ταύτης . . . ἐκ τυμπάνου ἔφαγον, ἐκ κυμβάλου ἔπιον For details as to these tokens and those of Eleusis, I may refer to my Prolegomena, pp. 155 and 536Google Scholar.