拍品 222
222
THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A FINE NEO-ASSYRIAN BROWN AGATE CYLINDER SEAL WITH THE MYTHICAL HEROES, GILGAMESH AND ENKIDU, SLAYING THE BULL OF HEAVEN, the hero on the right wearing a short tassled kilt decorated with rosettes, his hair and beard dressed in curls, brandishing an axe in one hand while holding the tail of the Bull of Heaven in the other, his foot resting on the creature's hind leg, the winged human-headed bull with finely detailed body and wings crouches down on its foreleg, in front stands the second winged hero, wearing long fringed robe with rosettes, a double horned headdress and long tightly curled hair and beard, he holds one of the bull's horns while plunging his sword into its neck, minor chips, circa 7th Century B.C.

細節
A FINE NEO-ASSYRIAN BROWN AGATE CYLINDER SEAL WITH THE MYTHICAL HEROES, GILGAMESH AND ENKIDU, SLAYING THE BULL OF HEAVEN, the hero on the right wearing a short tassled kilt decorated with rosettes, his hair and beard dressed in curls, brandishing an axe in one hand while holding the tail of the Bull of Heaven in the other, his foot resting on the creature's hind leg, the winged human-headed bull with finely detailed body and wings crouches down on its foreleg, in front stands the second winged hero, wearing long fringed robe with rosettes, a double horned headdress and long tightly curled hair and beard, he holds one of the bull's horns while plunging his sword into its neck, minor chips, circa 7th Century B.C.
1½in. (3.9cm.) high

拍品專文

In the Epic of Gilgamesh the Bull of Heaven was a mythical beast demanded by the goddess Ishtar, from her father, to destroy the city of Uruk when her amorous advances towards its king, Gilgamesh, were rejected. The bull caused widespread destruction but was eventually killed by Gilgamesh with the assistance of his companion, Enkidu. Although earlier versions of the Gilgamesh legends are known, the most complete version of the epic survives in twelve fragmentary tablets which were discovered in the excavations of the library of King Ashurbanipal (668-c.627 B.C.) at Nineveh. The slaying of the Bull of Heaven episode is treated in tablet VI. Cf. H. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, London, 1939, pp. 62ff. and pp. 126ff. for the Epic of Gilgamesh. Also, R. Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamesh, London, 1928, p. 44, lines 150-152 "Gilgamesh, like an able slaughterer, strikes with his sword the Bull of Heaven forcefully and precisely between shoulders and neck."