Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/47

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

FIGURES OF DEITIES. 25 Fig. 20), and in another terra-cotta of the same class, found at Cornus, we find the same type with this difference the two hands are laid upon the knees, and consequently there is no dove ; neither is there any other attribute. Sometimes the dignity of these sitting figures is increased by introducing a ram, a lion, or a sphinx, into the composition of the throne. We have already shown Baal-Hammon seated in such a chair (Vol. I. Figs. 25 and 140). In the Louvre there are several limestone figures from Cyprus in which the same type is repeated. In all these cases the animals' heads provide the arms, but we have also a type in which a sphinx forms the whole side of FlG. 23. Terra-cotta statuette from Cornus. Height 73 inches. Cagliari Museum. the chair. Thus it is in a statuette found at Selinus in Sicily (Figs. 24 and 25), a site on which many other objects of eastern origin have been discovered. The figure has neither head nor arms, nor any external attribute which would help us to give it a name. Even the sex is not easy to decide, but, judging rather from the contours than from the long rope, it is female ; and from the presence of the sphinxes we may add that the woman thus figured is certainly a goddess. There is one curious detail ; the sphinxes are robed. 1 This arrangement, which never occurs in Egypt, 1 This group has already been published by SERRA ni FALCO, Antichita della Sicilia, vol. v. plate xli. and p. 66. We reproduce his figure. VOL. II. E