Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/375

 NOTIONS AS TO A FUTURE LIFE. 353 of its body is that of a man, although its skin is seamed all over with short vertical lines meant to indicate hairs. One arm is raised and the other lowered, like those of the genii in the second division. His tail is upturned, his feet are those of a bird, and his wings show over his left shoulder. On the whole, the resem- blance between this figure and the nondescript beast on the obverse of the plaque is so great that we are tempted to think that they both represent the same being. Upon the river and in the centre of this division a scene is going forward that takes up more than a third of the whole field. It Is no doubt the main subject. A small boat glides down the stream, its poop adorned with the head of a quadruped, its prow with that of a bird. In this boat there is a horse, seen in profile and with its right fore leg bent at the knee. The attitude of this animal, which seems born down by a crushing weight, is to be explained by the rest of the composition. The poor quadruped bears on his back, in fact, the body of a gigantic and formidable divinity, who makes use of him not in the orthodox fashion but merely as a kind of pedestal ; his or rather her right knee rests upon the horse's back while her left foot which is that of a bird-of-prey grasps the animal's head. The legs of this strange monster are human, and so is her body, but here, as in the personage walking by the river side, we find the short scratches that denote hair ; her head is that of a lioness. For although her sex may appear doubtful to some it is difficult to explain the action of the two lion- cubs that spring towards her breasts otherwise than by M. Clermont- Ganneau's supposition that they are eager for nourishment. The bosom attacked by the two cubs is seen from in front, but the head above it is in profile, and so high that it rises above the line that divides this lower division from the one immediately above it. The jaws are open, that is to say they grin in harmony with those of the monster looking over the top of the plaque, with the genii of the third division and that of the river bank. All this, however, was insufficient to satisfy the artist's desire for a terror- striking effect, and in each hand of the goddess he has placed a long serpent which hangs vertically downwards, and shows by its curves that it is stru^o-lina- m ner m-ip. Between the limbs of the OO O O 1 goddess and the horse's mane there is something that bears a vague resemblance to a scorpion. We cannot pretend to notice every detail of this curious 7 Z