LATE MINOAN III, CIRCA 1400-1050 B.C.

This seal is engraved with two Minoan 'genii' with zoomorphic heads, slender long legs and 'wasp' cloaks, facing each other while holding up a stylized jug. A similar subject is depicted on another amigdaloid carnelian gem now in the Ashmolean Museum, inv. no. AM.1938.1043. A variation on this composition can be found on a rock crystal lentoid seal from Phigaleia, now in Berlin, showing a pair of genii flanking a central human figure, see O. Krzyszkowska, Aegean Seals, BICS Supplement 85, 2005, p. 206, no. 532. According to Krzyszkowska, the Minoan genius was a hybrid figure derived from the Egyptian deity Taweret and its representations are almost always Crete, and when found on the mainland they are likely to be imports.
For another gem engraved with lion-headed genii holding jugs over horns of consecration, see Athens Museum inv. no. 1776 which was found in the great tomb of Vaphio, in Laconia, together with 39 other gems and two rings, see J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, London, 1970, p. 56, pl. 166.