Part 11 (2/2)

RIDGEWAY, W.: _The Early Age of Greece_.

SCHUCHHARDT, C.: _Schliemann's Excavations_. (Useful summary of the work of Schliemann, translated by E. Sellers.)

SEAGER, R. B.: _Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Crete_.

Philadelphia, 1910. (Finely ill.u.s.trated.)

TSOUNTAS AND MANATT: _The Mycenaean Age_.

For the chronology of Ancient Egypt see--

BREASTED, H.: _History of Egypt_. (1906. Abridged issue, 1908.)

PETRIE, W. M. F.: _History of Egypt_, vols. i.-iii. _Researches in Sinai_.

For the topography of Crete, Pashley's _Travels in Crete_ and Spratt's _Travels and Researches in Crete_ will still be found interesting and useful, though published in 1837 and 1865 respectively. For the history of the island in mediaeval and modern times _A Short Popular History of Crete_, by J. H. Freese, may be consulted.

_Antiquites Cretoises_, by G. Maraghiannis, Candia, Crete, gives fifty excellent plates of Minoan relics, chiefly from Phaestos and Hagia Triada, with a short introduction by Signor Pernier, of the Italian Archaeological Mission.

APPENDIX

TRANSLATIONS OF THE PHaeSTOS DISK

Two translations of the Phaestos disk have been put forward. The first is by Professor George Hempl, of Stanford University, U.S.A., and appeared in _Harper's Magazine_ for January, 1911, under the t.i.tle, 'The Solving of an Ancient Riddle.' The second, by Miss F.

Melian Stawell, of Newnham College, appeared in the _Burlington Magazine_ of April, 1911, under the t.i.tle, 'An Interpretation of the Phaistos Disk.'

Both are characterized by considerable ingenuity; but the trouble is that they do not agree in the very least. Professor Hempl maintains that the disk is the record of a dedication of oxen at a shrine in Phaestos, in atonement of a robbery perpetrated by Cretan sea-rovers on some shrine of the great G.o.ddess in Asia Minor. Miss Stawell, on the other hand, believes that the disk is the matrix for casting a pair of cymbals, and that the inscription is the invocation which the wors.h.i.+ppers had to chant to the G.o.ddess.

A comparison of portions of the two renderings will at least show that certainty can scarcely be said to have been reached. Professor Hempl thus renders the opening lines of Face A:

'Lo, Xipho the prophetess dedicates spoils from a spoiler of the prophetess. Zeus, guard us. In silence put aside the most dainty portions of the still unroasted animal. Athene Minerva, be gracious.

Silence! The victims have been put to death. Silence!'

Compare Miss Stawell's translation of the same lines:

'Lady, 0 hearken! Cunning one! Ah, Queen! I will sing, Lady, oh, thou must deliver! Divine One, mighty Queen! Divine One, Giver of Rain! Lady, Mistress, Come! Lady, be gracious! G.o.ddess, be merciful!

Behold, Lady, I call on thee with the clas.h.!.+ Athena, behold, Warrior!

Help! Lady, come! Lady--keep silence, I sacrifice--Lady, come!'

THE END

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