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On a Minoan Bronze Group of a Galloping Bull and Acrobatic Figure from Crete, with Glyptic Comparisons and a Note on the Oxford Relief showing the Taurokathapsia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Arthur Evans
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Extract

Thanks to the kindness of its owner, Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill, I am able to describe a remarkable Minoan bronze object found in Crete, in the shape of a galloping bull with an acrobatic figure turning a back somersault over his back, both modelled in the round. Views of the group as seen in its original state from the front and side are given in Figs. 1 and 2.

The length of the bull at full stretch is 0·156 m., and the height of the group is 0·114 m. Beneath the forefeet of the animal is a metal attachment of angular form, upright in front. It must in some way have served the same purpose of holding the bronze in position as the tangs or nail-like projections visible in the case of many figurines of the votive class. The bull may have been held in some kind of framework, and it is probable that the hind-legs were fixed in a similar way.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , 1921 , pp. 247 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1921

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References

1 See Reinach, S., ‘La représentation du galop dans l'art ancien et moderne’ (Rev. Arch., 1900–1901)Google Scholar.

2 Palace of Minos, Vol. I. p. 714, seqq.

3 See loc. cit.

4 Mon. Ant., xix. (1908), p. 28.

5 To be published in Vol. II of Palace of Minos and in my forthcoming Knossian Atlas.

6 A curious little knob is visible on the right side of the figure. It is possibly an indication of a loop such as those on the sides of the girdle seen in the case of the Minoan bronze statuette in the British Museum recently published by Mr.Pryce, F. N. (J.H.S., xli. Pt. I. Pl. I.; and cf. p. 88)Google Scholar.

7 Executed, in accordance with my suggestions, by Mr. Theodore Fyfe, F.R.I.B.A.

8 To be published in Palace of Minos, etc., Vol. II. The gem is in my own collection.

9 See Palace of Minos, Vol. I. p. 694, Fig. 514.

10 From a hoard of sealings found by the entrance of the Corridor of the Bays. Op. cit. I. p. 686, Fig. 504, d.

11 See op. cit. p. 686, Fig. 504 a. This impression has been re-drawn for me from a cast kindly supplied by Dr. Hogarth. In the original publication, owing to a misinterpretation of the acrobat's arm, the animal had been described as a goat.

12 Op. cit. I. pp. 687, 688.

13 See op. cit. p. 688, seqq.

14 Rodenwaldt, , Ath. Mitth. xxxvi. 1911Google Scholar, Pl. IX. (cf. Palace of Minos, i. p. 344, Fig. 320).

15 Ibid.

16 See on this Palace of Minos, i. p. 377 and Fig. 274.

17 Palace of Minos, i. p. 189 and Figs. 137b, c, d. Cf. Mosso, , Scavi di Creta, p. 184Google Scholar, Fig. 85.

18 Pinches, , Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, i. p. 76Google Scholarseqq., No. 23.

19 Also in Thrace, (De Re Rustica, ii. 11)Google Scholar.

20 Suetonius, , Claud. 21Google Scholar. Thessalos equites qui feros tauros per spatia agunt insiliuntque defessos et ad terram cornibus detrahunt. Cf. Dio Cass. lxi. 9. According to Pliny, (H. N. viii. 172)Google Scholar, Caesar, as Dictator, first introduced the sport. The action of the ταυροκαθάπτης is described in detail by Heliodoros, (Aethiop. x. 30)Google Scholar, writing in Theodosius' time, and in an epigram of Philippos, (Anth. Pal. ix. 543 Did.)Google Scholar. Cf. Meyer, Max. (Jahrb. d. arch. Inst. vii. 1893, pp. 74, 75)Google Scholar.

21 C.I.G. iii. 114.

22 Chandler, , Marmora Oxoniensia, ii. p. 58Google Scholar (cf. Michaelis, , Ancient Marbles, etc., p. 573Google Scholar, No. 136).

23 Plin., H. N. viii. 172Google Scholar: “Thessalorum gentis inventum est, equo juxta quadrupedante, cornu intorta cervice tauros necare.”

24 For the seal-impression as countermarked, see Scripta Minoa, I. p. 43, Fig. 20.

25 Furtwängler, , Antike Gemmen, iii. p. 49Google Scholar, Fig. 28.

26 Drawn for me by Gilliéron: See, too, Perrot, Grèce primitive, vi. Fig. 426, 24 (and cf. Furtw. loc. cit. Fig. 28); Reichel, A., Ath. Mitth. 1909, Pl. II. 5Google Scholar. A poor design on a cornelian ‘flattened cylinder’ from Phaestos (Savignoni, , Mon. Ant. 1905, p. 625Google Scholar, Fig. 97 b) may be also cited. A half-kneeling man seizes a bull by the tips of both horns. The bull stands in an attitude like the conventional suckling cow.

27 Palace of Minos, i. p. 8, Fig. 2a.