Folia archeologica 54.
Judit Lebegyev: A Stag from Mycenae and the Greek prehistoric Sherd collection of the Hungarian National Museum
76 JUDIT LEBEGYEV The motif to the right of the stag is most likely to be identified as part a floral motif. The space between the two downward curving lines growing out of the vertical stem is filled with a row of clots. Similar leaves are found on two palm-tree representations: on a LH HIB chariot kráter in Bonn, 2 S and on a fragmentary krater in Stockholm. 2 4 On other examples the space between the two lines is filled with short strokes, as on the "Zeus krater" in Nicosia, 2 5 and on a LH IIIB-C stirrup jar from Perati. 2 6 On the basis of these more complete representations some other fragmentary examples can be also most likely reconstructed as palm-trees. 2 7 For the silhouette painted crowning motif, however, no close parallels are known. 2 8 Nevertheless, if we take into account the great variability of the palm-tree motif in the pictorial repertoire, 2 9 this detail does not seem to be out of context, and even without having any parallel for it, the interpretation of the whole motif as a palm-tree is the most conceivable. As the floral motif is placed directly in front of the stag, the animal was undoubtedly standing or moving to the right, with face ahead. 3 0 The composition can either be reconstructed as an antithetic representation of hvo stags facing a floral motif in the middle; or as a single stag to the lelt of a floral motif. In this latter case, the palm-tree is usually placed at the right end of the decorative zone, next to the handle, thus the fragment would show the rightmost part of a larger composition. In the pictorial pottery repertoire no example is known for antithetic compositions of stags facing a floral motif, 3 1 not even for a single stag facing a floral or palmtree motif. 3 2 When naturalistic palm-trees are central motifs of an antithetic composition, they are flanked by a pair of goats, 3 3 birds, 3 4 or other animals 3 5. When 2 3 ÁSTRÖM 1962, PI. 1.; CVA Bonn 2, PI. 32, 1-4 (from Cyprus); MPVP V.6. L. Aström remarked that the big plant in front of each pair of horses is without exact parallels, ibid. 126. 2 4 Stockholm Medelhavsmuseet, Karageorghis 1958, pi. 100, fig. 9; MPVP V.39. (from Enkomi Tomb 3/278). On the other side of the krater the leaves of a similar palm tree are filled with short strokes, ibid. pi. 100. fig. 7, pi. 101, fig. 11. 2 5 MPVP III. 2. 2 6 MPVP XI. 83; SAKELLARAKIS 1992, No. 113. 2 7 Two fragments from the Acropolis of Mycenae could also be most likely interpreted as a representation of a palm-tree with hatched leaves. One of them was identified as a "fragment of central part and left horn of a bull's head", SAKELLARAKJS 1992, No. 84 (I.H IIIB2 late) - on the basis of the concentric arch on the top, however, the fragment is more likely to be identified as a floral motif, probably a palm-tree. The same can be said of the other fragment, on which a stag facing to the right is depicted in front of a hatched leaved floral motif, taken as inexplicable by J. A. Sakellarakis, SAKELLARAKIS 1992, No. 99 (LH IIIB2). 2 8 On the Bonn krater, the crowning leaves are also filled out with dots, A STRÖM 1962, Pl. I; CVA Bonn 2, PI. 32, 3, 4. - On the two palm-trees to the left of the large octopus on the "Zeus krater" the crowning leaves are represented with three short lines, and on the smaller palm-tree above the chariot scene, there are no crowning leaves at all, A KERSTRÖM 1987, 99, Fig. 65 - with a good roll-out drawing of the vase, showing all three palm-trees. 2 9 F URUMARK 1972, 280. so Because of the too short distance between the two motives, the antithetic, backward turning composition scheme, seen on a krater from Maroni with antithetic, back turning goats closely facing a stylised tree motif (MPVP III. 26), can be ruled out. Nonetheless, the backward turning position is a popular compositional pattern among the representations of stags, but it never occurs in a confronted, antithetic arrangement, Akerström 1987, 62-63. 3 1 Only to examples are known for antithetical composition of stags: on a krater from Tiryns the central motif is a geometric checkerboard panel, MPVP X.48, on a kvlix from Amorgos(?) two stag protomes face a frontal bull's head, MPVP XII. 21. 3 2 One possible exception is a fragment from Mycenae, Sakellarakis 1992, 62, No. 99-where a hatched wavy band stretching out above a stag's head, can most probably be interpreted as a palm-tree motif. 3 3 RMDP Kalymnos, 14, Fig. 463. The motif also occurs on a Cretan pictorial krater, MAVRIGIANNAKI 1974, PI. 21a. 3 4 SAKELLARAKIS 1992, 90, No. 188. 3 5 MPVP V.27 - Side A; between two griffins; Side B: between two sphinxes.
