¹ Even if there were some indication of the scar on the mask, the size of the theatre would also demand descriptive language or mime.

² This must be the explanation of the imagery in Electra 4–9, see also Haigh, A. E., Attic Theatre, p. 170.Google Scholar

³ Eustathius, , Odyssey, p. 1553.Google Scholar

⁴ Sophocles, , Electra, 1113Google Scholar, 1114, 1117, 1119, 1205. See also the reference to the actor Polos in the scene, 1126 seq. Igitur Polus lugubri habitu Electrae indutus, ossa atque urnam e sepulcro tulit filii, et quasi Oresti amplexus, Gellius, , Nodes atticae vi (vii) 8Google Scholar. [Plutarch], Vitae Decem Oratorum 859B, Demosthenes 28.

⁵ Camerarius, Joachim, Commentatio explicationum omnium tragoediarum Sophocles (Basilae, 1556) 302, 249.Google Scholar

⁶ Elmsley, P., Sophocles scholia 346.Google Scholar 1223: Σφραγίδα] τὸν δακτύλιον.

⁷ Jebb, R. C., Sophocles 165.Google Scholar 1222 f.

⁸ Pp. 157–8.

⁹ Buckley, T. A., The Tragedies of Sophocles (London, Bohn, 1863) 150 n. 3.Google Scholar See also Jebb, op. cit., 165, on lines 1222 f.

¹⁰ At times a thought has occurred to the writer that at some point in this mythological tradition, there has been a grave error. Might the difference between Pindar's reference, and Ovid's account indicate that the legend before Pindar had also been distorted, and that his very words give a clue to the original truth, viz. the wearing of an ivory seal round the neck, or on the upper arm? The Cretan seals, Heraklion 1054, 1082, 1109–1112, being parts of ivory tusks, in shape like a human shoulder, but engraved with a device, are also suggestive.

¹¹ Sophocles, , Electra 1223Google Scholar; Trachiniae 615. The σύμβολον in Philoctetes 403 by reason of the plot and by the apposition of λύπης does not seem to be connected with σφραγίς, in spite of an occasional fourth-century assimilation. See also Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxiii 10.

¹² Euripides, , Iphigenia in Aulis 155Google Scholar; Nauck, , Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta, no. 1132, line 59.Google Scholar

¹³ Matt, xxvii 66; Rev. v 1, 2 (AV). Also Washburn, , Law of Real Property ii 571.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Aristophanes, , Pluto 884Google Scholar, and in a fragment of Antiphanes quoted by Athenaeus, iii 96 (123).

¹⁵ Böckh, , Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener (Berlin, 1851) ii 252 f.Google Scholar

¹⁶ In these items σφραγίς is usually the subject of the sentence, δακτύλιον the object. Modern use would reverse this order.

¹⁷ As two older examples, in lapis lazuli (Heraklion 838, BM105).

¹⁸ s.v. σφραγίς, II.

¹⁹ An ivory signet with a ring handle, Heraklion Museum 646 from Koumasa, has a string hole bored twice through the ring handle.

²⁰ B.M. Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, p. xxv. Newberry, , Scarabs, pl. 2.Google ScholarB.M. Catalogue of Finger-Rings no. 14 and Oxford 1938. 1051 and 1053 have hoops too small for wear on the finger. Later varieties of this Cretan type, e.g. Oxford 1938. 1126 and large gold signets in Athens, National Museum 2853, 2970, 3134, 3138, 3148, 7372, suggest by the dimension of the hoop, finger-wear; but, by size and weight, ceremonial use.

²¹ Athens, National Museum 2157, of agate; 3372, of gold, appear to be the first finger-rings engraved with a device for sealing. Two signet rings found in the Argive Heraeum also appear to be an early use (Argive Heraeum ii pl. 83).

²² B.M. Catalogue of Finger-Rings, nos. 15, 20, 22, 23, 41.

²³ B.M. Catalogue of Scarabs, pl. 1.

²⁴ B.M. Catalogue of Finger-Rings, 48–9. Rings do not seem to appear on red-figure vases although cords with talismanic knots are shown on a Euphronios painting in positions where seals were more anciently worn. A vase-painting of Smikros also shows men wearing a cord round the wrist. Pfuhl, , Malerei und Zeichung iii, figs. 394, 388.Google Scholar

²⁵ I am indebted to Mr. P. E. Corbett for drawing my attention to this reference.

²⁶ In the edition of 1843, p. 1349.

²⁷ See, however, Cary, , Herodotus (Bohn, 1861) 188.Google Scholar

²⁸ This also a later use.

²⁹ Frankfort, H., Cylinder Seals 297.Google Scholar

³⁰ The verb relating to the δακτύλιος is ἐπιψηλαφάω.

³¹ Cf. Heraklion 607, incomplete because of a fracture as the string hole was bored.

³² Evans, A., Palace of Minos ii 707Google Scholar, pl. 12.

³³ In the LM Warrior Grave discovered near Knossos in 1953 and excavated by Sinclair Hood, Director of British School at Athens, a lentoid and an amygdaloid were discovered in a position which suggested that they had been worn on the deceased's wrist. See Hood, , BSA 51 (1956) 85.Google Scholar

³⁴ Most of the remains of necklaces found in Helladic graves contain one or two lentoids, e.g. Wace, , Chamber Tombs at Mycenae (tomb 526), pl. 9Google Scholar, no. 4.

³⁵ B.M. Catalogue of Engraved Gems nos. 298, 302, 311, 314, 348, 455, 459, 480, 487, 492.

³⁶ Kenna, , Minoan Seals K 264 and 277Google Scholar are carnelian amygdaloids with high carinated backs which are serrated.

³⁷ The lentoid on the cup-bearer's wrist in the fresco at Knossos shows the striations of a banded agate and appears to show the back of the stone (see n. 32). A great number of lentoids examined by the writer show wear on the edges of the string-hole, consistent only with the wearing of the device of the seal next to the skin.

³⁸ Oxford 1938. 992, 1052 appear to be two exceptions: both are also, for Minoan gems, of unusual shape. An MM II variation on the Egyptian scarab-form in the Dawkins collection is a third.

³⁹ This place, however, is unlikely since it was a Persian custom, or a feminine fashion. See Greek Anthology v 205.

⁴⁰ Jebb's remark (op. cit., 165) ‘A Greek audience was wholly uncritical in such a matter’, seems hard to reconcile with Aristophanes, Schol. Plato, p. 330 (Bekker); Achamians 404–79; Aristotle, Rhetoric 3.2.

⁴¹ Bieber, , History of the Greek and Roman Theatre (Princeton, 1939) 157Google Scholar, figs. 202, 209, possibly figs. 204–5.

⁴² Ibid., 37, fig. 42, and fig. 533.