Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/274

 250 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. The animals most frequently encountered in such intaglios as we believe to have come from the Syrian coast are those for which Oriental art always showed its predilection. The lion, for instance, is now and then figured with great skill. Among the numerous lions discovered in Phoenicia there are none to equal this on a scarab inscribed with the name A'shenel (Fig. 184) ; small as it is, it has much in common with the fine beasts on the Assyrian reliefs. The cutting, however, is Phoenician. The winged scarab at the bottom of the field is borrowed from Egypt, excluding the notion of a Ninevite engraver. A hemispherical seal in white chalcedony, without any inscription, must be of similar origin (Fig. 185). The lion's action is there well understood, but its form is a little clumsy ; it resembles the animal on the money of Azotus. One of the favourite motives of Oriental art, was the group com- posed of a lion and some victim stag, bull or ram on which he had made his spring. A symbolism of some comprehensible but not FIG. 184. Broken scarabaeoid. l FIG. 185. Hemispherical seal. 2 easily definable kind, was attached to it, and for many centuries it was continually employed by art, from the coasts of the Mediter- ranean to the farthest borders of Persia. In most cases its character was conventional, almost heraldic, but in those centuries and among those races in which a feeling for beauty rose and flourished, the sculptor appreciated the advantages such a theme afforded ; he took pleasure in contrasting the forms of victor and victim ; he under- stood what an opportunity the energetic movements of the two actors in such a drama gave him. We see this clearly in a fine intaglio representing a stag attacked by a griffin while at speed ; lower down in the field grins Medusa's head (Fig. 186). We do not know where this stone was found, but there is every reason to believe that it was cut for the person, some rich Cypriot Greek, no doubt, whose name appears upon it. This name, Akestodaros, is 1 From DE VOGU, Melanges, &c., plate v. 2 French National Library. In the De Luynes Collection ; No. 234 of inventory,