Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/29

ring which has recently been discovered by Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter in Cyprus. Here the interior of the cartouche is filled with the rude drawing of the Trojan goddess, as she appears in the Hissarlik idols, excepting only that the Cyprian artist has provided her with wings similar to those on the owl-headed vases. In the case of the Hissarlik cylinder, on the other hand, a figure is drawn inside the cartouche, which is curiously like a rudely-designed scarab or beetle on a Hittite seal now in the possession of Mr. R. P. Greg. The flower placed by the side of the cartouche may be compared with one upon the Mykenaean ring to which I have before alluded, as well as with others on Cyprian cylinders of the "Hittite" class. I have already referred to the fact that the so-called swastika (卍) is figured upon the pelvis of the leaden image of the Asiatic goddess found among the ruins of Ilion. This would seem to stamp that mysterious symbol as of Hittite origin, at least as regards its use at Ilion. That it really was so, seems to have been proved by a discovery made last year by Mr. W. M. Ramsay at Ibreez or Ivris in Lykaonia. Here a king, in the act of adoring the god Sandon, is sculptured upon a rock in the characteristic style of Hittite art, and accompanied by Hittite inscriptions. His robe is richly ornamented, and along it runs a long line of Trojan swastikas. The same symbol, as is well known, occurs on the archaic pottery of Cyprus, where it seems to have originally represented a bird in flight, as well as upon the prehistoric antiquities of Athens and Mykênae, but it was entirely unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria, to Phoenicia and to Egypt. It must, therefore, either have originated in Europe and spread eastward through Asia Minor, or have been disseminated westward from the primitive home of the Hittites. The latter alternative is the more probable, but whether it is so or not, the presence of the symbol in the lands of the Aegean indicates a particular epoch, and the influence of a pre-Phoenician culture.