Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/373

 NOTIONS AS TO A FUTURK LIFE. " r^ CO Assyrian universe was divided. Those regions are the heavens, the atmosphere, the eartli, and hell or Jiades. The highest division is the narrowest of all. It only contains the stars and a few other symbols grouped almost exactly as we find them on not a few monuments of Mesopotamia. 1 The non- sidereal emblems in this division are, no doubt, the attributes of gods who live beside the stars in the depths of the firmament. FIG. 162. Plaque of chiselled bronze. Reverse. In the second division we find seven animal-headed personages passing from right to left. We need not stop to describe their appearance or gesture ; we have already encountered them 1 See above, p. 72, and Figs. 3, 10, IT, 12. See also the notes to M. Clermont- Ganneau's article. He has no difficulty in showing how general was the use of these emblems.