Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/70

 54 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. but a later development of the myth, brought into fashion by Clesias, who wrote about the fifth century B.C., declared Assur- nat-sirpal the hero of this tragedy.^ The Greeks, with their proneness to find a reason for everything, were not to be deterred because lack of historical knowledge, notably in matters pertaining to alien peoples, rendered them singularly unfit to explain subjects which they saw enacted before them, but which they were wholly incapable of apprehending, and willingly numbered the Baal of Tarsus among their own revered gods. It has been asked whether the representation on the coins of Tarsus was not intended for the funeral pile of the quinquennial festival (Fig. 273). Ingenious though the conjecture may be, it seems more natural to view it as the permanent pedestal upon which the statue was set up, such as appears on older coins (Fig. 267). The rude portion of the monument, extant to this day, was far away a more apposite symbol of the city than a scaffolding of resinous wood temporarily raised in an open space to be destroyed. Nor is this a self-unsupported opinion ; the multitudinous coins of Byblos, Paphos, and Eryx, published in a former volume, all bear the impress of their chief sanctuary, which served to remind the inhabitants of their old creed, connected with all their civic and religious associations, and the envy of more modern neighbouring centres. Even granting the not improbable assumption that the funeral scaffolding was a copy of the stone pedestal will not invalidate our theory, since it is evident that the aim of the engraver was to reproduce a sample of the original, held to be coeval with the town, in regard to which no one could tell when or by whom it had been founded. All things taken together, we think that we shall not greatly err in ranging the Deunuk-tach in the same category. The largest cube (A in plan) was the pedestal which supported the statue of the god dressed as a warrior ; whilst the famous tvttos XlBlvos, bas-relief, which the companions of Alexander mistook for the image of Sarda-nat-sirpal, whom they described snapping his fingers in utter unconcern at his impending fate,^ probably covered block B — perhaps a royal stela — akin to those of Assyria figuring monarchs in sacerdotal robes, the right arm raised and thumb closed upon the forefinger, in sign of adora- ^ Arrian, Anabasi, II. v. 1-5 ; cf. Strabo, XIV. v. 10. 2 Aristobulus, cited by Athenius, xii. p. 530. A. Arrian, Anabasis, II. v. 2.