Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/249

THE PHOENICIAN TOMB AWAY FROM PIKKNICIA. 229 The two long sides were carved with a kind of procession ; four chariots drawn by horses with fan-like plumes upon their heads, and between the chariots foot-soldiers armed with lances and round shields, and a couple of horsemen. Upon each of the two short faces a single figure was repeated four times. At one end this figure was the naked o-oddess with bent arms and hands o o displaying her breasts and about her throat a double necklace ; at the other the god Bes, recognizable by his feather head-dress, by his large face, and the deformity of his thickset little person. 1 The lid, too, is sumptuously decorated ; 2 at each end of the central ridge a graceful palmette acts as an acroterion, while winged sphinxes face each other at the four angles. FIG. 157. Interior of a tomb at Amathus. From Cesnola. 3 The doorway of the tomb in which this fine monument was found is surrounded by four grooves (Fig. 158). The height of the opening is four feet ten inches, the width three feet nine ; in several more of these tombs we find doorways of the same dimensions and decorated in the same fashion. 4 The opening was closed by means of a huge and heavy stone which rested against the jambs. 1 CESNOLA, Cyprus, plates xiv. and xv. 2 Ibid. p. 267. The lid, like the body of the coffin, was broken into many pieces. The drawing which we reproduce farther on, following Cesnola, is almost a restora- tion, but thanks to the exact symmetry of the design, there is nothing doubtful about it. 3 Cyprus, p. 282. 4 Ibid. pp. 256 and 270.