ody
back, is beyond any representation of the human figure hitherto
known before the best period of Archaic Hellenic art.'

The interest of another of the Hagia Triada finds arises from the
fact that it appears to represent a religious ceremony in honour of
the dead. The object in question is a limestone sarcophagus covered
with plaster, on which various funerary ceremonies are painted. The
artistic merit of the work is small, for the figures are badly
drawn and carelessly painted, and in all likelihood represent the
decaying art of the Third Late Minoan period; but the subjects and
their arrangement are of importance (Plate XXVIII.). On one side
of the sarcophagus a figure stands against the door of a tomb. He
is closely swathed, the arms being within his wrappings, and his
attitude is so immobile as to suggest that he is dead. Towards him
advance three figures, one bearing something which, by a stretch
of charity, may be described as the model of a boat, the others
bearing calves, which, curiously enough, are represented, like
the great bulls of the frescoes, as in full gallop. At the other
end of the panel a priestess pours a libation into an urn standing
between two Double Axes, with birds perched upon them. Behind the
priestess is a woman carrying over her shoulders a yoke, from which
hang two vessels, while behind her, again, comes a man dressed in a
long robe, and playing upon a seven-stringed lyre. On the opposite
side of the sarcophagus, the painting, much defaced, shows another
priestess before an altar, with a Double Axe standing beside it, a
man playing on a flute, and five women moving in procession. On
the ends of the sarcophagus are pictures, in one case of a chariot
drawn by two horses, and driven by two women; in the other, of a
chariot drawn by griffins and driven by a woman, who has beside
her a swathed figure, perhaps again representing a dead person. The
figures of the lyre and flute players are interesting as affording
very early information concerning the forms of European musical
instruments. The double flute employed shows eight perforations,
and probably the full number, allowing for those covered by the
player's hands, was fourteen. The lyre approximates to the familiar
classic form, and the number of its strings shows that Terpander can
no longer claim credit as being the inventor of the seven-stringed
lyre, which was in use in Crete at least eight centuries before the
date at which his ins