Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/439

 4i8 History of Art in Antiquity. We need not be surprised, then, if official art measured out so scantily the space divine simulacra were to occupy in its monumental compositions; granted the ideas and habits amidst which it lived, no other result could be possible. Hence it is til at we do not find here those tiny images ol metal or terra-cotta, copies in small of statues set up in temples to enhance the solemnity of public worship, and of which all other countries turned out thousands of exemplars. The true sons of Iran do not appear to have had familiar and domestic idols. Naught of the kind has been dis- covered in Persia, for no such character can be imputed to the bronze statuettes, true in form but rude in make, which M. Dieulafoy brought back from Susa.' Such would be Fig. 20 1, representing a man with the general characteristics of the figures at Pcrsepolis, who presses a dog to his side ; a walking lion (Fig. 202), and a few more objects of the like description, the use of which is not apparent. As to the clay figurines that Loftus and more recent explorers collected in vast quantities at Susa, representing a nude woman with prominent hips and abdomen, we identify them with Mylitta or Ashtoreth, what- ever name be preferred, a Chaldaan goddess of fecundity.* Susa was indeed raised to the rank of capital, and if the kings macie long stays there with their court, if the citadel was garrisoned with ' GoBiMBAU {IRst, da Ikna, voL i. pp. 19, so) speaks of a bronse plate two feet square and three inches thicl^ which would appear to have been found amidst the ruins of Persepolis some few years before the publication (1869) of his book. On it is graven the image of two dancing dyws, or demons, face to face ; they are, seemingly, exact fecsimiles of tboee of Assyria, chanderixed by the length of their ears, teeth, and body. The plaque is supposed to be a mould used for obtaining clay forms in relief It is now in the mosque of Shah Abdful-Azis, near Rhages. It would he well to have a drawing made of it. Fio. aof.— Branie autiiette. Louvre. Diawa by St. Elne GMlier. Actual iise. Digitized by Google
 * J£isi. 0/ Art, tom. ii. p. 82 and Fig. 16.