Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/196

ASSYRIAN ART. fashion similar to that of the later artists in such works as the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. In such scenes as the battle of Susa, which completed Asurbanipal's conquest of Elam, each successive incident of the battle, even each separate phase of the duel of the two leading warriors, is given separately and side by side. It is a sort of moving panorama, which proceeds pari passu with the descriptive text. The Assyrian official annals of each yearly campaign are thus illustrated at every point. We see exactly how the Assyrian soldiers were armed and fought, marched, encamped, crossed rivers, attacked cities, slaughtered and tortured enemies, cooked, and sacrificed to the gods. (3) Scenes of daily peaceful life are only less numerous. The king banqueting with his queen in the palace garden, or hunting lions, gazelles, or wild asses; the construction of a royal palace; the royal horses led to the river to be watered; incidents of court life and glimpses of the royal parks, all show the versatility of the artist. It is, however, true that far less use is made of such material than was the case in Egypt, where many more details of manners and customs are portrayed. The Assyrian artist cared more for the official acts of his sovereign than for the life of the people or for the mysteries of religion. Consult the bibliography given in the preceding article.

AST, ast, (1778-1841). A German philologist and philosopher. He became professor of classical literature at Landshut (1805) and at Munich (1826). Among his works were a Handbuch der Aesthetik (1805), Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie (1807), Wissenschaftliche Darstellung der Grammatik, Hermeneutik und Kritik (1808) Platos Leben und Schriften (1816), and an edition of Plato in eleven volumes with Latin translation and extensive notes.

ASTAR'BOARD. See.

ASTARTE, as-tUr'te. The woman whom the hero of Byron's Manfred had guiltily loved, and whose lovely shade appears to him at the close of the second act.

ASTARTE, ASH'TORETH. A goddess appearing frequently in the Old Testament (I. Kings xi. 5-33; II. Kings xxiii. 13), where she is called the goddess of the Sidonians. The form of her name in the Massoretic text of the Old Testament appears to be due to intentional perversion, her real name being Ashtart, to the consonated frame of which scribes infixed the vowels of Bosheth, 'shame,' thus producing the form Ashtoreth. Her worship was quite prevalent in the time of the Judges, and Solomon built a temple to her. Astarte was, however, not only the goddess of the Sidonians; the Bible mentions a temple of Astarte at Ashkelon (I. Sam. xxxi. 10), and from Semitic inscriptions we learn of a temple to Astarte at Citium in Cyprus, at Eryx in Sicily, as well as in Carthage. It is fair to infer, then, that she was a Phœnician goddess. From Cyprus her cult was carried to Greece and appears as that of Aphrodite. Astarte herself is not original with the Phœnicians. In Assyria there is an Ishtar, 'the Lady,' 'the Queen of the Gods,' 'the Goddess of War,' the planet Venus; she, too, is the goddess of various localities, 'Ishtar of Arbela,' 'Ishtar of Ninua,' and alone finally assinnes a national position. In South Arabia there was a male deity Athtar, but very little is known of this god. Astarte is represented as a female figure, generally naked, rather short and round, with hands holding the breasts. The oldest representation of her is simply a white conical stone, but later, in Canaan and Phœnicia, she is typified in the form of a cow. From the biblical references it would appear that Astarte was regarded as the goddess of fertility and fruitfulness.

ASTAT'IC NEE'DLE (unstable, from Gk. d, a. priv. + (TTarSt, statos, standing). A com- pound magnetic needle which has little if any directive power and is composed of two magnetic needles suspended parallel in the same system, but with their poles reversed. The effect of one needle is to neutralize the other, and the result is the same as if a very weak needle were placed in the magnetic field. The chief use of the astatic needle is in the astatic galvanometer, where great sensitiveness is required. Possess- ing but a slight directive power, it will deflect under the action of very weak currents of electricity in the surrounding coils. (See ) A simple description of the astatic needle and the astatic galvanometer will be found in Silvanus P. Thompson, Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism (New York, 1901).

ASTAY'. See.

ASTEN, iis'ten, (1842-78). A German astronomer. He was born at Cologne and studied at the University of Bonn. From 1870 he was connected with the observatory of Pulkova, Russia. He is chiefly known for his researches in connection with Encke's comet.

AS'TER (Lat., Gk. aaH/p, aster, star). A genus of plants of the natural order Compositæ. The genus contains a great number of species, both herbaceous and shrubby, mostly natives of the United States. A number of perennial spe- cies are in cultivation as garden flowers. They bloom from July to November, and are among the most valuable hardy plants for border and roadside planting. The ray and the disk are of different colors. The New England aster (Aster Novæ Angliæ) is one of the most showy native American asters. The best known and most valued of all the asters is the China aster (Aster Chinensis), a summer annual, of which more than two hundred and fifty varieties are in cultiva- tion, and new ones are continually being intro- duced. The plant was brought from China in the early part of the Eighteenth Century, and has been greatly improved by cultivation. The differ- ent varieties exhibit diversity of form and color. The plant prospers in a rich, free soil. Aster argophyllus, or Haxtonia argophylla, a native of Van Diemen's Land, is a whitish shrub, smelling strongly of musk. Consult: Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 90; Bailey, The China Aster, with Remarks on Flower Beds (Ithaca, 1895); Massachusetts Hatch Ex- periment Station, Bulletin 79 (Amherst, 1902). For illustration see.

ASTER, iis'ter, (1778-1855). A German military engineer. While an officer in the Saxon Army, then an ally of the French, he submitted to Napoleon in 1810 a plan for the fortification of Torgau. Napoleon became much interested in it, and the fortress was finished under Aster's superintendence. After the Russian campaign, in which he took part, he served in the Russian Army for some time, and then returned to the Saxon service. In 1815 he became colonel in the Prussian Army and after