Page 78 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE NEO-SUMERIAN PERIOD
task of rebuilding Eninnu, the temple of the god. Note that abundance follows
the huge 1
the * humid wind* which brings the ram.
When, O faithful shepherd Gudea,
Thou shalt have started work for me on Eninnu, my royal abode,
I will call up in heaven a humid wind.
It shall bring thee abundance from on high
And the countryjjhalTsprcad its hands upon riches in thy ti me.
Prosperity shall accompany the laying of the foundations of my h ousc.
All the great fields will bear for thee;
Dykes and canals will swell for thee;
Where the water is not wont to rise
To high ground it will rise for thee.
Oil will be poured abundantly in Sumer in thy time,
Good weight of wool will be given in thy time.5
Of the costly objects with which Gudea furnished the temple, only a few survive. A
limestone basin6 was decorated with goddesses holding the miraculous ‘flowing vase’,
and they are linked with each other, so that each holds her. own vase in the right hand
and supports with her left the vase of her neighbour. The water flows downward in a
double stream to cover the earth, and more water streams from the sky, emerging from
round vases borne by goddesses like figure iS. These figures have been called the earliest
representation of angels, but the heads and arms are not attached to wings, but to bodies
clothed in the gown with wavy folds which the standing goddesses also wear. The same
motif recurs in the stele of Umammu (Plate 53) from which figure 18 is taken.7
Another of Gudea’s basins was decorated with lions8 like some of the mace-heads dedi­
cated to Ningirsu.9 Others were merely inscribed. A fragment of a stele shows a harp
being played in the temple.10 Another stele, of which only the curved top is preserved,
gives a scene which was also engraved on Gudea’s personal seal: the ruler, held by the
hand of his ‘personal god’, his special protector Ningizzida, is introduced into the pre­
sence of the great gods. On the seal the god who gives audience is, once again, a deity
who dispenses water from the ‘flowing vase’, here marked as the source of life by the -
plant sprouting from it.
Gudea dedicated the steatite vase of plate 51B to his ‘personal god’ Ningizzida, who
represents natural vitality in its chthonic aspect, and is therefore identified by two inter­
twined snakes, originally pairing vipers (Plate 8a). The dragon, too, counts as a spirit of
the earth and appears regularly as the symbol of this god.11 Intertwined snakes are ren-
dered also in the fine steatite cover of a lamp or dish (Plate 51c), but the dedication was
apparently engraved on the missing portion of the vessel.
Whether the human-headed bull of plate 50c belongs to the age of Gudea is uncertain.
It may be earlier (i.e. Akkadian) or later, but its mildness would agree with the art of
Lagash. Notice how even here the creature’s extended attitude, which would easily fit
L
into an oblong, has been rounded by the movement of the head. The block form, which
was dominant in Egypt, is avoided in Mesopotamia.
Of Ur-Nmgirsu, Gudea’s son, several statuettes have been preserved. They resemble
closely those of Gudea, but the base of one of them has been
enriched by a frieze in relief
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