In the Nineveh galleries of the British Museum we also see pictured in
stone the employment of the Lion, in the life of Assyria and Babylonia,
three thousand years since; in the events of a succession of dynasties,
recording the sieges of cities, the combats of warriors, the triumphs
of Kings, the processions of victors, the chains and fetters of the
vanquished. To the zoological observer these sculptures present drawings
_ad naturam_ of tableaux of Lions and Lion-hunts; Lions in combat, as
well as in moveable dens and cages, and the ferocity of the chase; and
Lions transfixed with arrows or javelins in the arena. One of the finest
of these sculptures is in the representation of a Lion-hunt, on a long
slab that lined the principal chamber of the most ancient palace at
Nimroud. The King is in his chariot, drawn by three horses, which the
charioteer is urging forward to escape the attack of an infuriated Lion
that has already placed its fore-paws upon the back of the chariot. At
this critical moment, the Royal descendant of the mighty hunter aims a
deadly shaft at the head of the roaring and wounded Lion, the position
of whose tail and limbs is finely indicative of rage and fury. Behind
the Lion are two of the King's attendants, fully armed, and holding
their daggers and shields, ready to defend themselves in case the prey
should escape the arrow of the King. Before the chariot is a wounded
Lion, crawling from under the horses' feet. The cringing agony conveyed
in its entire action is well contrasted with the undaunted fury of the
former. In another slab we have the continuation of the same Lion-hunt,
representing the triumphant return of the King from the chase. At his
feet lies the Lion subdued, but not dead.
Of the pageantry of the Lion, we read, in Bell's "Travels," that the
monarch of Persia had, on days of audience, two great Lions chained on
each side of the passage to the state-room, led there by keepers in
golden chains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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