We have already described the most remarkable of all these composite types, the man-headed bull and lion; we have attempted to explain the intellectual idea which gave them birth; we have yet to point out a variety which is not without importance. The lion has sometimes been given, not only the head, but also the arms and bust of a man. In one of the entrances to the palace of Assurbanipal there was a colossus of this kind (Vol. I., Fig. 114).[196] With one arm this man-lion presses against his body what seems to be a goat or a deer, while the other, hanging at his side, holds a flowering branch. This figure, like almost all of those found in the doorways, is winged. Another example of the same type is to be found in a bas-relief of Assurbanipal; it is, however, simplified, and it looks, on the whole, more probable (Fig. 88). The wings have disappeared; there are but two natures to be joined, and the junction seems to be made without effort; the lion furnishes strength and rapidity, the man the various powers of the arm and hand, and the beauty of the thinking and speaking head. The divine character of the personage thus figured is indicated by the three pairs of horns bent round the dome-like tiara, and also by the place he occupies in the inferior compartment of a relief on which, at the top, appear those lion-headed genii we have already figured (Vol. I., Fig. 6). [Illustration: FIG. 87.--Fantastic animal. National Library, Paris. Height 5¼ inches. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] In this last composition we have a foretaste of the centaur. Replace the lion by a horse and the likeness is complete. Even now it is very great. At the first moment, before we have time to notice the claws and divided toes, we seem to recognize the fabulous animal of the Greeks upon the walls of an Assyrian palace. [Illustration: FIG. 88.--Man-lion. British Museum. Height about 27 inches. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] Another composite animal familiar to the imaginations both of Greeks and Mesopotamians was the winged horse, the Hellenic Pegasus (Fig. 89). The example we have chosen is full of grace and nobility. We feel that the wings have given additional lightness and almost a real capacity for leaving the ground. [Illustration: FIG. 89.--Winged horse. From Layard.] [Illustration: FIG. 90.--Griffins seizing a goat. From Layard.]