Date
Ninth - eighth century B.C. [--Corpus.]
Origin
The Ancient World : The Middle East : Late Assyrian Period
Description
Left, horned serpent having long undulating coils extending across bottom
of scene, head facing center, tongue extending from mouth; center, bearded
running god, hair hanging at back of neck, wearing headdress, sword(?),
thrusting dagger into mouth of serpent with forward extending left hand,
holding globe in backward extending right hand; running figure holding
globe in both hands before body; before god, rhomb; behind god, four
globes; crescent in sky; right, walking figure holding ring in both
hands before body, wearing sword(?); plant growing through tip of serpent's
tail, plant growing behind tip of serpent's tail.
Porada (in Corpus) comments that the attack by a god on a monster is
one of the two undoubted mythological scenes found on Late Assyrian
cylinders. Although the running god appears to be wielding a dagger,
the usual Neo-Assyrian treatment of this theme shows the deity with
the lightning trident of the weather god. The question remains whether
the god in this case stands for the weather god. Porada describes the
serpent as having the head of a bull.
Kramer notes that the cylinder is of the first millennium B.C. and therefore
it is doubtful whether it depicts the Ninurta-Kur battle of Sumerian
myth. In this version of the dragon-slaying myth Ninurta, the warrior-god,
son of Enlil the air-god, is urged by his personified weapon, Sharur,
to attack and destroy Kur. After Ninurta slays Kur the primeval waters
which Kur had held in check rise to the surface of the earth so that
no fresh water can reach the fields and gardens. Ninurta heaps stones
over the dead Kur and thereby holds back the waters of the lower regions
from the surface of the earth. He leads the waters flooding the earth
into the Tigris. Ninurta is the prototype of the Babylonian god Marduk
when playing the role of the "hero of the gods" in the Babylonian
"Epic of Creation."
An important feature of the Babylonian creation myth is the slaying
of the dragon. The destruction of Tiamat by Marduk, in order that he
may establish a rule entirely of his own devising, parallels the destruction
worked by the Assyrian kings as a prelude to establishing their rule
over the earth. [--Great King.]
Object
Seal (cylinder; greenish-black serpentine; impression; ht. 17 mm., diam.
11 mm.).
Style or School
Assyrian.
Material or Technique
Glyptic.
Provenance
Originally acquired by the Rev. Frederick Williams from an Arab who
had just come over the river from Layard's excavations near Mosul in
1857.
Repository or Site
New York: Lib., Pierpont Morgan.
Image Sources
from Great King.* [JF 1482]
References
*Great King (1945), pp.14-15; fig.p.9.
Corpus, vol.1 (1948), text, pp.73,82,83; atlas, pl.101(688e).
Kramer, S. N., Sumerian (1961), pp.78,79-82; pl.19.
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