reputed to be female, and by W il k in so n to be always male in Egypt,
has the body of a lion wben (e. g. in tbe splendid granite Sphinx of
R am se s at tbe Louvre,) it typifies tbe king; or of a lioness, (as in
M au t -h em -w a ’s at Turin,) wben tbe queen. Another rule of Egyptian
art is, tbat tbe human faces of Divinities wear tbe portrait of tbe
reigning monarch. Row, in Assyrian sculpture — an offshoot of
Rilotic art—the same rules bold good. Those gigantic human-beaded
bulls, and those superb winged-gods, of scenes in which human-faced
F 25 deities are introduced, assume the portraits of
the sovereigns in whose age they were carved:
truths easily verified by comparison of the
folio plates of E l a n d in or of L a y a r d . In
consequence, regretting the necessity for reduction
of size, we submit, from one of the winged-
bulls at Paris104 the likeness (Eig. 25) of him
whose cuneatic legend reads: — “-8 AEG OR,
great king, puissant king, king of the-kings of
the land of Assour” — Ashur, or Assyria — of
whom I sa ia h relates — “ In the year that
Tartan came unto Ashdod (when S argon, the
S a e g o n . king of Assyria, sent him,) and fought against
Fig . 26.105 F ig . 27.
S e n n a c h e r i b — b . c . 700.
Ashdod, and took it events of the seventh century before
Christ.
To complete the series, we add a royal head, (Eig. 26) of the same
times, but name unknown to us, surmounting a winged-lion; its only
peculiarity being the ponderous nose.
Rot less curiously valuable, whether in its historical, biblical, or
ethnographic associations, is the portrait (Fig. 27,) of Sargan s son
“ S e n n a c h e r ib , on his throne before Lachish.” 106
We have already beheld (Eig. 14) his Jewish captives. Mr. Layard
unfolds, through translation of this king’s cuneiform inscriptions,
points of the grandest scriptural interest107—“ Hezekiah, king
F ig . 28.
of Judah,” says the Assyrian king, “ who
had not submitted to my authority, forty-
six of his principal cities, and fortresses
and villages depending upon them, of which
I took no account, I captured, and carried
away their spoil. I shut up (?) himself
within Jerusalem, his capital city.”
We commenced at the seventh, and now
advance into the eighth century, b . c.
A “ Bas-relief, (Fig. 28) representing
P ul, or TiGLATH-Pileser,” from Rimroud,108
places us about the year b . c. 750.
Here the same high type is preserved in
the features of the king, his bearded
chariot-driver, and his depilated eunuch:
while inscriptipns that contain the name
of “ Menabem, king of Israel,” tributary
to Assyria,109 evince the intimate relations
already existing between that emigrant
branch of the Alrahamidse domiciliated in
Judaea, and the indigenous stem still flourishing
in Chaldaea, whence they had issued
about 1000 years before. The same type
is carried hack to the tenth - century b . c.,
by this copy (Eig. 29) of the statue of
S a r d a n a pa lu s I.110; whose era falls about
930 years before ours.
“ On the breast is an inscription nearly
in these words:—after the names and titles
of the king, * The conqueror from the
upper passage of the Tigris to Lebanon
and the Great Sea, who all countries, from
F ig. 29.