Dual scene: Contest scene depicting royal hero fighting lion/Cultic scene depicting worshipper before scorpion-tailed bird-man


Dual scene: Contest scene depicting royal hero fighting lion/Cultic scene depicting worshipper before scorpion-tailed bird-man
Kategória Cylinder Seals
Description of the seal image The seal image comprises two scenes. In the contest scene, the royal hero grasps the throat of a rampant lion with one hand and holds a dagger in the other. He wears a dentate crown (cidaris) and Persian clothing (court robe). Above them is the winged sun-disc. The cultic scene depicts a bearded worshipper facing a scorpion-tailed bird-man. He wears a round headdress and a long, belted robe with a fringed lower edge and raises both hands. The hybrid creature wears a conical headdress and stands on a platform. Above its wings is a crescent moon.
Figures, motifs/symbols - crescent moon
- lion: rampant, snarling, clawing at the royal hero
- royal hero: bearded, wearing a dentate crown (cidaris) and Persian clothing (court robe)
- scorpion-tailed bird-man: wearing a conical headdress, standing on a platform
- winged sun-disc: with appendages
- worshipper: bearded, wearing a long, belted robe with a fringed lower edge, raising both hands
Subcategory cylinder seal
Collection N/A, formerly kept in James Lewis Kraft Collection
Condition, shape slightly worn
Culture Achaemenid, Neo-Babylonian
Provenance Ex-James Lewis Kraft Collection, then surfaced at Sotheby’s (New York) 17–12–1996, lot 361
First occurence 1996
Dimensions (mm): height, diameter h: 35, d: 18
Material and features lapis lazuli
Style linear
Scene contest, cultic, dual
Bibliography

Sotheby’s (New York) 17–12–1996, lot 361.



Sotheby’s (New York) 17–12–1996: Antiquities.