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 Themes and their Situations. 417 the arU of design. It did not call forth those efforts which the richer mythology of other nations imposed upon the artist, obliged as he was to use whatever skill might be his for the rendering of the form, and make perceptible to the eye, by slight modifications of outline, those manifold aspects under which he and his country- men conceived the substance and action of the several deities.' Fiu. 203.— PerscpolU. Graven iimige of Ahura-Mazda. Flandin and Costs, Ptru tmeiemm^ Plate CLXIV. ' It is curious to note the total absence in the sculjitiircs of mythical represen- tations such as could be derived from the Avesta. It might also have been expected that the sculptor, in depicting the triumphant combat of the king over the power of evil, would have brought him in conflict with Azi Dahaka or Zohak, generally figured as a man with two serpent's heads about his slioulders (James Darmkstetfr, Introduction au VetididaJ, Plate LXV.), but there is nothing of the sort. The monaidi invariably contends with monsters of Chalda^an origin. Again, we find no image of the Fairika,* Peii, and other demonic creatioiis, of which frequent mention is made in the sacred books {lac til, Plates LXVI., LXVIf.). It is not to be denied that animals like the three-footed ass of the Avesta, from an artistic standpoint, were less happy conceptions than the lion, the grifhn, and the unicorn. Again, notwithstanding the importance which sacrifices occupy in the Masdian worship, no reference is made to them in the bas-reliefs {loc. cit., Plate LXVIII.). These types, of purely Aryan creation, are exhibited mnch later, in a S;is<;anid 'sculpture for instance, where Ahura-Mazda is shown in the act of slaying a man with a snake entwined around his head, who can be no other than Zohak. Every- body knows how popular became the worship of Mithra and its attending sacrifices, in the basin of the Mediterranean during ^e Roman period, the origins of which must be sought in Persia. • A iairy, originally a creation of AngroMainyus, but which in time '* developed into the protecting genius of heroes, who were indebted to her for their supematmal strength" (Haog, in Hansen's Egypt, stA. iti. pk 482).~Trs. a E Digitized by Google