MINOAN AND MYCENAEAN ELEMENT EVANS. 631 



a change, and the later class is occupied with religious subjects. But 

 in the later days of the Palace of Knossos at all events, a series of 

 clay documents attests the fact that a bronze cuirass, with shoulder- 

 pieces and a succession of plates, was a regular part of the equipment 

 of a Minoan knight. Sometimes he received tlie equivalent in the 

 shape of a bronze ingot or talent — a good suggestion of its weight. 

 On the somewhat later Cypro-Mycenaean ivory relief from Enkomi 

 (where bronze greaves were also found) we see a similar cuirass.^ 

 This comparison has special pertinence when we remember that in the 

 Iliad the breastplate of Agamemnon was the gift of the Cypriote 

 Kinyras. 



A close correspondence can moreover be traced between the My- 

 cenaean and Homeric methods anxl incidents of combat due to the 

 use of the tall body shield — which itself had long gone out of use at 

 the time when the Iliad was put together. One result of this was 

 the practice of striking at the adversary's throat as Achilles did at 

 Hector's — an action illustrated by the gold intaglio from the third 

 shaft grave. On the other hand the alternative endeavor of Epic 

 heroes to pierce through the " towerlike " shield itself by a mighty 

 spear thrust is graphically represented on the gold bezel of a My- 

 cenaean ring found in Boeotia.^ The risk of stumbling involved by 

 the use of these huge body shields is exemplified in Homer by the 

 fate of Periphetes of Mycenae, who tripped against the rim of his 

 shield, '' reaching to his feet," and was pierced through the breast 

 by Hector's spear as he fell backward.^ A remarkable piece of evi- 

 dence to which I shall presently call attention shows that this par- 

 ticular scene seems to have formed part of the repertory of the en- 

 gravers of signets for Minoan lords^ and that the Homeric episode 

 may have played a part in Chansons de Geste as early as the date 

 of the Alo-opolis tombs of Mycenae.* 



Can it indeed be believed that these scenes of knightly prowess on 

 the Mycenaean signets, belonging to the very house of Agamemnon, 

 have no connection with the epic that glorified him in later days? 

 Much may be allowed for variation in the details of individual epi- 

 sodes, but who shall deny that Schliemann's persuasion of their essen- 



1 1 may refer to my remarks on this in " Mycenaean Cyprus as illustrated by the 

 British Museum Excavations " ( Journ. Anthr. Inst. vol. 30, 1900, pp. 209, seqq., and see 

 especially p. 213). The round targe was now beginning. 



- In the Ashmolean Museum ; as yet unpublished. 



» II., XV, 645 seqq. 



* I note that Prof. Gilbert Murray, who seems to regard the cuirass as a late element, 

 still sums up his views regarding the armor and tactics of the Homeric poems as follows : 

 " The surface speaks of the late Ionian fighting, the heart of the fighting is Mycenaean " 

 (The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 140). This latter point is the gist of the whole matter. 

 But it is dlflicult to accept the view that the cultural phase repi-esented by the Homeric 

 poems In their characteristic shape Is " late Ionian.'' The " late lonians " no longer used 

 bronze for their weapons. Moreover, they were well acquainted with writing and wore 

 signet rings. 



