home
: index
: picture
archive
: Iran
: Pasargadae
: Achaemenid
Royal inscriptions : photos by
Marco Prins ; text Jona Lendering © |
|
Pasargadae (4)
|
|
|
Unless
otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona
Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes,
but you have to acknowledge Livius.
The
first page with pictures can be found
here.
|
|
 |
On both sides of the entrance of Palace
S at Pasargadae
is a remarkable, damaged relief. On both sides, we can see the feet of
two figures. They are walking like human beings, but they are not human.
This man has the tail of fish, and below we will see a man with bull's
legs, someone with bird's claws. Only the fourth one seems to have normal
feet. |
|
 |
The fish man is also known from Babylonia
and Assyria,
and is probably the same as Ea or Oannes, who is mentioned by Berossus
of Babylon.
In his Babyloniaca, he tells how after the Creation, Oannes taught
humankind all kinds of useful knowledge (text). This photo of the fish man shows a small Assyrian object, made ca. 700 BCE, in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. |
|
 |
The bull man is a protective demon but may also have belonged to a
Creation story. (Berossus is only known from a summary that does not mention
all magical creatures in great detail.) The bull man is usually presented
as an attendant of the sun god Šamaš. |
|
 |
The man with the bird's claws belongs to the scorpion people (girtablullû),
who are otherwise known to have a human head and body, a scorpion's tale,
and a snake-like penis. They are known to have played a role in apotropaic
magic. The human feet can belong to several types of protective genies
or the griffin-demon, who is, like the fish man, one of the "seven sages"
of the ancient Near East (apkallû). |
|
 |
Close to Palace S is Pavilion B, shown here. (In the background
the citadel Tall-i
Takht.) Here, a visitor entered the garden of the palace. (Pavilion
A, an exact copy of Pavilion B, is on the other side of the park.) |
|
 |
The garden had several small channels and must have been very green.
This was more than just a nice and lofty place to stay on a hot afternoon:
the king here presented himself as a gardener, as the man who brought culture
to the wilderness. Gardens and parks were an important element of the royal
ideology. |
|
|
|
|
 |
This is Palace P (Tall-i Takht in the distance again), usually
regarded as the residence of the great king. It is rather curious that
the remains of the columns -five rows of six pillars- all reach the same
height. Probably, only the lower parts of the columns were made of stone;
the upper parts were made of wood. |
|
 |
Map of Palace P. |
|
 |
A close parallel to this building is the Apadana
of Persepolis,
although this was fully made of stone. The white stones used in the column
have the remarkable physical quality that they will always feel cold. |
|
 |
This is the portico of Palace P, 72½ x 9¼ meters. The
central hall (31 x 22 meters) is to the left, the portico on this picture
offered a view of the garden, to the right on this picture. |
|
 |
The horizontal cut in this stone is very recent: modern vandals tried
to saw a piece from this column. Fortunately, they were discovered and
arrested.
Like Palace S, Palace P has an inscription (CMa) in Aryan
script that mentions that this building was made by king Cyrus.
The text was added by his successor Darius
I the Great. |
|
 |
 |
adam \ kuruš \ xšâya-
thiya \ haxâmanišiya
I, Cyrus the king, an Achaemenid.
|
|
|
 |
The second and third lines state the same, but in Elamite and Babylonian.
Finally, the entrance of Palace P was decorated with these men: the
king is leaving the room, followed by a servant. An identical decoration
can be seen in the palace of Darius in Persepolis. There were traces of
paint on this relief.
|
|
 |
The inscription, known as CMc of this relief states
Kûruš \ xšâyathiya
\ vazraka \ Haxâmanišiya
Cyrus, the great king, an Achaemenid
It seems to be a later addition. |
|
 |
Palace P for the last time, on a fine day in the spring. |
|
|
|
 |
|
home :
index
: Iran
: Achaemenid
Royal inscriptions
|
| |
