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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.
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