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 instrument was mutilated by the unsympathetic
judges at Sparta to put him on a level with his four-stringed
competitors.
[Illustration XVI: A FLIGHT OF THE QUADRUPLE STAIRCASE (_p_. 85)
WALL WITH DRAIN (_p_. 98)]
More important, however, is the suggestion of Egyptian influence
in the grouping of the figures. No one familiar with the details of
the ceremony of 'opening the mouth' of the deceased, so continually
represented in Egyptian funerary scenes, can fail to recognize the
original inspiration of the scene on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus.
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