Lot Essay
This powerful figure with his fists clenched, as though raising a heavy load, is reminiscent of that equally powerful proto-Elamite figure of a lion-headed demon on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art (L48.7.9). With his long braided hair and strong muscular body, impervious to hardship, it is tempting to identify him with the wild hero of Near Eastern mythology, Enkidu (or earlier Enbani/Enkita) who, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, accompanied the eponymous hero on his journeying to defeat the demon Humbaba and the dreaded Bull of Heaven sent against them by the goddess Ishtar.
Cf. J. Aruz (ed.), Art of the First Cities, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, pp. 44-47, nos. 14 and 15a/b, for two Proto-Elamite bearded 'shamanic' figures in arsenical copper representing horned demons.
See illustrations opposite and on following pages.
Cf. J. Aruz (ed.), Art of the First Cities, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, pp. 44-47, nos. 14 and 15a/b, for two Proto-Elamite bearded 'shamanic' figures in arsenical copper representing horned demons.
See illustrations opposite and on following pages.