Part of stone rhyton with relief male procession



Part of stone rhyton with relief male procession

Λ426
Stone (Black Steatite)
Incomplete
Height 5.5 cm. Width 3.7 cm.
Knossos
Palace, south limits
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙI period.:
1600-1500 BC:
Gallery:
VIII
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Minoan religion. Palace cult
Cult scenes
Description
Fragment of a stone rhyton depicting two cupbearers in front of an architectural structure. The men are ceremonially proceeding with extended arms, body bent sharply backwards. The architectural structure in the background features coursed masonry and pillars with square capitals, and is crowned with horns of consecration. It is usually identified by scholars as a palatial structure, either a staircase or the usual fa?ade of the palace complexes around the central court, where the ceremony is taking place. Ceremonial processions to make offerings to the ruler or the deity often took place in the palaces. They may even have started from different parts of the palace and ended in the same place in order to carry out the established rituals. In this case, the procession of men appears to be moving along the Central Court of the palace of Knossos, perhaps towards the shrines on the first floor of the West Wing.
Bibliography:
Evans, A.J. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. II,2. London, 1928, 752, fig. 486. Nilsson, M., The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion. Lund, 1950, 179-80, fig. 87. Warren, P. Minoan Stone Vases. Cambridge, 1969, 85, 175, P474. Palyvou, C. "Central Courts: The Supremacy of the Void". In J. Driessen, I. Schoep and R. Laffineur (eds), Monuments of Minos: Rethinking the Minoan Palaces. Proceedings of the International Workshop “Crete of the Hundred Palaces?” Held at the Universit? Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, 14-15 December 2001), Aegaeum 23, Li?ge και Austin, 2002, 175. Mandalaki, S. (ed.). Δαίδαλος. Στα ίχνη του μυθικού τεχνίτη, Κατάλογος έκθεσης, Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου, Heraklion, 2019, cat. no. 80.
Author:
S. M.


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