Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/317

264 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. pieces, the haft and the tablet which formerly faced the mirror. The handle has disappeared, except a tiny bit of the upper end, whereon is represented the lower row of palms which fall with so graceful a curve over the stem. On the tablet are two women in a sitting posture, apparently enjoying a friendly gossip. The bird which they hold by the feet, probably a dove, is Fio. 381,— Ivory handle. Actual ?iie. suggestive of the worship of Aphrodite. Two round holes about their middle mark the place of the nails. If there could be any doubt that in the supports of his mirrors the artisan had designed to portray palms, they would vanish into thin air at the sight of another handle from the rock-cut graves at Mycenie (Fig. 381). Carved on each side of the quadrangular haft rises a well-drawn stately palm ; the markings