between 1000 B.C. and 700 B.C.
greenish-black serpentine ;
Morgan Seal 688
Description
1 cylinder seal : greenish-black serpentine ; 17 x 11 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
Only two indubitably mythological motifs are found on Neo-Assyrian cylinders: one is... that of an attack by a god upon a monster (688, 689). Mitannian relations can also be established for 688, on which a god appears to be attacking a weather god standing on a lion-griffin. Another god is thrusting two daggers into the serpent's body from behind. Though in 688 the god running on the outstretched coils of the serpent seems to be wielding a dagger, the usual Neo-Assyrian treatments of this theme show the deity with the lightning trident of the weather god. It must remain a question whether the god in 688 also stands for the weather god."--Porada, CANES, p. 82-83
Summary
On outstretched coils of horned serpent: running god who holds globe in one hand and with other thrusts dagger into mouth of serpent as it rears its head toward him; running figure with globe; walking figure with ring -- Before running god, rhomb; before second figure, four globes; before walking figure, plant growing through serpent's tail; behind tip of tail, second plant -- Crescent in sky.
Catalog link
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department