Page 75 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART ONE: MESOPOTAMIA

the supreme judge, but on our seal he carries a plough, a large vessel, and some other ob­
jects in his boat, while a human-headed lion is tied to the prow. The sterns ends in a
snake’s head, and in the snake the fertility of the earth is symbolized, as we recognize
from other monuments.17 A number of Akkadian versions of this scene arc known, but
figure 15B shows an Early Dynastic rendering. While the Akkadian engravers aimed
singlc-mindcdly at clarity of representation, at a precise rendering of concrete detail, so
that we should be in no doubt of die meaning if only we shared with them the mytho­
logical premisses, the Sumerian draughtsman reduced even a scene of this type to a
homogeneous ‘brocade’ pattern. In the midst of this network of lines we notice the ani­
mated boat, propelled by its own mysterious power. It contains only the sun-god; his
equipment is scattered over the field; immediately behind his barque appears the human­
headed quadruped (the forefeet are lost in the chipping of the cylinder’s edge). Above its
back we see the large vessel and the plough. Behind him moves a scorpion-man with up­
lifted arms. It is, of course, possible that he was intended to precede the sun-god’s vessel,
for in the tightly interwoven design there is no indication where the scene begins or ends.
The space left above the scene we have described is filled with designs which seem to have
no bearing on it, but merely avoid a hiatus: the bird Imdugud holding a horned beast in
either claw, and, on the left, a lion and a goat; there was no room for the complete ani­
mals, and their forequarters only arc drawn. The delineation is very vivid; the boat, the
quadruped, the scorpion-man move almost feverishly, but the main interest of the seal-
cutter was the production of an uninterrupted, closely interwoven design, while the
Akkadian aimed at clarity with his widely spaced, sedately moving figures.
Sometimes men are shown approaching tliis world of the gods; they bring gifts,
either as respectful familiars (Figure 1713), or betraying the distance between human and
divine. A good example of tliis last is shown in plate 45B, where a libation is poured
before two weather-gods. The imagery is striking and appropriate; the lightning flashes
as the god’s whip with which he spurs on the fire-spitting dragon who draws his chariot.
The noise of its heavy solid wheels is the thunder. These images describe the terrifying
nature of a Mesopotamian storm. Its beneficent aspect is represented by the goddess,
standing on the dragon’s back, dispensing rain with both hands. The worshipper stands
outside the space in which the gods function. He pours his libation over an altar shaped
like a two-staged temple tower. The gods appear as a vision which he contemplates.
The theme of the weather-gods in action is treated differently in other seals.18 For in­
stance, a number of the dragons are drawn obliquely across the cylinder to render the
wild confusion of the storm at its height; conversely, the event may be rendered with­
out reference to actuality, by a god aiming his arrow at the Bull of Heaven (symbolizing
drought), while a storm-demon stands by.
The Akkadian seals, like those of Early Dynastic times, evoke a world of the imagina­
tion. But it is no longer the world of the fairy-tale. It is a grim world of cruel conflict,
of.danger and uncertainty, a world in which man is subjected without appeal to the in­
comprehensible acts of distant and fearful divinities whom he must serve but cannot
love. This sombre mood, which was first expressed in Akkadian times, remained char­
acteristic of Mesopotamian art throughout its history.
46