Ægean archæeology; an introduction to the archæeology of prehistoric Greece . form, con-nected with water in theirminds, that goes back to thebeginning of things, when theoriginal Aegeans (as is veryprobable) first came from theNile-Delta to Greece ? ^ We find a hunting-goddess,an Artemis TroTvia Qiipwv who is human in shape, but mostof the minor deities, if we can call them deities, wereconceived as beings of extraordinary form. We haveprobably a selection of demons in the famous clay-im-pressions from Zakro (Fig. 88), which shew us butterfly-winged sphinxes, stag-headed women, antlered malef
Ægean archæeology; an introduction to the archæeology of prehistoric Greece . form, con-nected with water in theirminds, that goes back to thebeginning of things, when theoriginal Aegeans (as is veryprobable) first came from theNile-Delta to Greece ? ^ We find a hunting-goddess,an Artemis TroTvia Qiipwv who is human in shape, but mostof the minor deities, if we can call them deities, wereconceived as beings of extraordinary form. We haveprobably a selection of demons in the famous clay-im-pressions from Zakro (Fig. 88), which shew us butterfly-winged sphinxes, stag-headed women, antlered maleforms reminiscent of Heme the Hunter, and otherstrange beings which seem to have come out of thesketch-book of Hieronymus Borch (see pp. 208, 209). Aegean religion was weird indeed, much weirder in The first illustration represents the rim of a bronze vessel latelyfound in Cyprus, and published by Mr. IvIarkides in , 1912-1913, p. 95_^., PI. VIII, and a similar rim in the IVIetropolitan Museumof New York. ^ , I, p. 112. Cf. the horse-headed Demeter (p. 150).. Fig. 57.—Water-demons withvases and sacred tree. Froman intaglio seal ; 2:1. 158 AEGEAN ARCHAEOLOGY some ways than even the much-vaunted mysteries ofEgypt. Our knowledge of Minoan rehgion is, however,very small and every new discovery is eagerly scanned,to see if it will give us more information on this en-grossing subject. It is on the funeral side of religionthat we have least information, and until the discoveryof the famous Hagia Triada sarcophagus we knewpractically nothing but what could be guessed fromthe method of burial and the nature of objects foundin the tombs. The paintings on the Hagia Triada sar-cophagus have given us for the first time some idea ofthe funeral rites. The tomb was the house of the dead, and so, as else-where from the very earliest times, the last homes ofthe great dead were first caves^ since men also dwelt incaves, and then in artificial caves, rock-cut tombs
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