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No Mycenaean Centaurs Yet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Korinna Pilafidis-Williams
Korinna Pilafidis-Williams
Affiliation:
London
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Abstract

IONE Mylonas Shear claims in her article in JHS 2002 that two Mycenaean animal figurines from Ugarit, only one of which has been previously published, represent Mycenaean centaurs and are thus predecessors of centaurs of the historical period. It is quite clear, however, that both belong to the so-called ‘abbreviated group’ figurines, which consist of driven oxen – ‘plough’ (PLATE 8a) – or single chariots, as identified by E.B. French and further defined by me in my work on the terracottas from the Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina. In an abbreviated group there is only one animal instead of two, with one human, sometimes two, standing at the rear of the animal, in or behind a small or almost non-existent box or balustrade. According to what animal head is at the front of the figurine, either horse or bovine, it is an abbreviated chariot or, much more commonly, a driven ox. In the fully preserved pieces the head of the driver always faces towards the animal head.

Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 124 , November 2004 , pp. 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2004

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References

1 Mylonas Shear, I., ‘Mycenaean centaurs at Ugarit’, JHS 122 (2002) 147–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 3a–f; Courtois, J.-C., Ugaritica 7 (Paris 1978)Google Scholar fig. 55:5.

2 French, E.B., ‘The development of Mycenaean terracotta figurines’, BSA 68 (1971) 165–6Google Scholar; Pilafidis-Williams, K., The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina in the Bronze Age (Munich 1998) 67–70.Google Scholar

3 Mylonas Shear (n.1) pl. 3a–c. The photograph suggests that it is of this type, viz. the body modelled with an extra strip of clay; in more stylized figurines, the added body of the charioteer/driver is merged with the box and it is impossible to tell that there is a person attached unless the head is preserved.

4 Mylonas Shear (n.1) p1. 3e-f.

5 K. Pilafidis-Williams (n.2) 70, nos. 510, 511, 512; pls 3, 54.

6 For Methana: Konsolaki, E., ADelt 46 (1991) 71–4Google Scholar, pl. 41b; ead., ‘A Mycenaean sanctuary on Methana’, in R. Hägg (ed.) Peloponnesian Sanctuaries and Cults, Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium at the Swedish School in Athens (Stockholm 2002) 25–36, fig. 12; ead., ‘Τά Μυκηναϊκά εἰδώλια ἀπό τόν Άγιο Κωνσταντίνο Μεθάνων’, in E. Konsolaki-Iannopoulou (ed.), Αργοσρωνικός, Πρακτικά lου Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας του Αργοσαρωνικού, Πόρος, 26–29 Ιουνίου 1998, vol. A (Athens 2003) fig. 20 (MP 5494), fig. 21 (MP 5502, 5503), and fig. 22 (MP 5496, MP 5500). For Phylakopi: E.B. French in Renfrew, C., The Archaeology of Cult. The Sanctuary of Phylakopi (London 1985) 260Google Scholar (SF849), pl. 44c.

7 Von Merklin, , Der Rennwagen in Griechenland (Leipzig 1909)Google Scholar nos. 3 (NM 3493) and 4 (NMA 10139).