Content uploaded by Panos Tzovaras
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Panos Tzovaras on Oct 27, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Tzovaras, P. . 2017. (2020 addendum) A Journey from the Unconscious to the Cosmos: Rethinking the Symbolic Function of the Ship in the Minoan World. Rosetta 21: 50 - 70
Abstract and Figures
…Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street... Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks…. ―Wassily Kandinsky (Selbstbetrachtungen, Dokumente. Berlin: 1913: 89)
Figures - uploaded by Panos Tzovaras
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Panos Tzovaras
Content may be subject to copyright.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Recent discoveries have shed new light on the curious objects known as "frying pans," whose real purpose is disputed. Most are of terracotta, but a few examples are now known of stone and there are also two of bronze from Alaca Hüyük. They may be divided into several groups according to the type of handle (i.e., forked, barred, rectangular and "bracket"). "Frying pans" from the Cycladic islands can often be distinguished from those found on the mainland of Greece by both their handles and their decoration. The chronological evidence indicates that all "frying pans" now known from the Cyclades may be dated to Early Cycladic II. Those found on the mainland date to Early Helladic I and II. It is argued that "frying pans" were probably used as plates, as Mylonas has suggested, although they may often have served a decorative function as well. It is not yet clear whether the form originated in the Cyclades or the mainland of Greece. The examples in bronze from Alaca Hüyük are hard to explain, but they may have copied Cycladic exemplars in stone.
Among the greater monuments or actual structural remains of the Mycenaean world hitherto made known, it is remarkable how little there is to be found having a clear and obvious relation to religious belief. The great wealth of many of the tombs, the rich contents of the pit-graves of Mycenae itself, the rock-cut chambers, the massive vaults of the bee-hive tombs, are all indeed so many evidences of a highly developed cult of departed Spirits. The pit-altar over grave IV. of the Akropolis area at Mycenae, and the somewhat similar erection found in the Court-yard of the Palace at Tiryns, take us a step further in this direction; but it. still remains possible that the second, like the first, may have been dedicated to the cult of the ancestors of the household, and it supplies in itself no conclusive evidences of a connexion with any higher form of worship.
Extremely detailed Minoan gold signet rings are ornamented with exquisite depictions in which the artist leaves nothing to chance. A group of small motifs that appear above the iconography have not yet been satisfactorily explained. The aim of this paper is to define them as a group, describe their traits and peculiarities, and suggest a possible interpretation for their existence.