Vaphio Cup of Mycenae (undated drawing)

Ancient Greek Mythology, Religion, Art

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This drawing depicts the relief on a gold cup discovered in Vaphio, a Mycenaean site in the southern Peloponnesus. Dubbed the Vaphio Cup, it was created around 1500 BCE and depict figures probably based upon the Minoan style of art - the influence of Minoa on Mycenaean culture can also be seen by the frequent appearance of bulls.

Culture and art were clearly a shared commodity between Mycenaean sites and Crete. After the fall of the Minoan civilization, however, Mycenaean civilization began to have a much wider impact. By 1350 Mycenaean pottery can be found in large quantities as far away as Amarna in Egypt and by 1300 BCE Mycenaean influences had reached their farthest extent, with settlements as far away as Mt. Olympus, Aetolia, and Rhodes.

Mycenaean art was not, however, simply a copy of Minoan. The Mycenaean adopted much of the Minoan type of decoration but added their own preferences for symmetry and formal design. Mycenaean megarons are very symmetrical and regular in their design, for example, while Minoan palaces seem almost randomly put together. Decorations within the rooms, however, have many similarities.

For a long time scholars didn't distinguish between Minoan and Mycenaean religion at all. Only after Linear B script was deciphered in 1953 was it possible see that the Mycenaeans believed in a pantheon of gods entirely different from that of the Minoans.

In the above drawing of the relief on the cup we see a scene where a bull is being trapped by people using a cow as bait. Just over 3 inches tall, the Vaphio Cup was created by a process known as repousse, which means "to push back." A flat sheet of gold is placed in a hollow mold and pushed into the final design.

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