Inlaid ivory panel depicting "lioness devouring a boy"... From the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, part of an almost identical pair, originally part of a piece of furniture, perhaps a throne. ca 899-700 BC...
There is something very strange about this object. It doesn't look very Mesopotamian...
This "boy" being devoured by the lioness...His gold tunic and particularly his gold curly hair, indicate that this is not an ordinary boy...And the lioness devouring him. The jewel on her forehead indicates that we are not talking about an ordinary lioness either...
I would suggest that this young boy (we know it's a boy because he is wearing short skirt of youth and not the long skirt of adulthood) is the symbolic depiction of the young sun of spring and summer...
A very strange depiction of the sun to be found in Mesopotamia...But not further west...Here are three ways the sun god Helios is depicted on Greek coins: Big rays, Small rays, No rays, but dashing locks of (presumably golden) hair...
From my post about "Lion killing Snake" symbolism...
Was this golden hair boy an early depiction of such sun god? The piece looks like an import. From where? Do we find anything similar anywhere else at that time in the Eastern Mediterranean?
The killing of the young boy by a lioness takes place among blue water lilies, wrongly called Blue Lotus, even though they don't belong to the lotus family...
These beautiful blue flowers are native to both Nile marshlands as well as Mesopotamian marshlands although it is possible that they were transplanted from Egypt to Mesopotamia during Bronze Age or even Earlier...were believed to be "magic flowers", and were worshiped by both Egyptians and Mesopotamians...You can read more about this in "Influences of Egyptian Lotus Symbolism and Ritualistic Practices on Sacral Tree Worship in the Fertile Crescent from 1500 BCE to 200 CE"
And blue water lilies flowering season is from July until September. Peaking in Leo...Leo which marks the end of summer...
Hence the lioness killing the gold haired boy (sun) among the lilies...So I think that whoever made this ivory plate deliberately placed the murder scene among the flowering blue lilies.
By the way, why is July-August the part of the year marked by Leo? Well Eurasian Lions are seasonal breeders. And their mating season peaks from August and October.
Covering the whole of autumn, part of the year symbolised by lion...
And it is autumn that kills summer...
Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar II dedicated the bright blue gate he built in Babylon to the Babylonian "Mistress of Heaven", Ishtar, and covered its façade with Nilotic blue lotus (Blue water lily)...
Ishtar (the warrior goddess) who likes posing standing on a lion...
The "mysterious" morning star...Guess who rises with the sun, pretending to be "The morning star" in Leo? Sirius...A very special star indeed...
Is she the lioness in the original scene? The jewel on the lionesses forehead sure looks like a star...
PS: Just learned about Nefertem, the Egyptian Beautiful Boy, originally a lotus flower at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters. Some of the titles of Nefertem were "He Who is Beautiful" and "Water-Lily of the Sun"...
Nefertem emerging from the lotus blossom. Found at the entrance to the tomb of King Tutankhamun, in the Valley of the Kings, 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom.
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| Pic: Margarete Büsing |
BTW, blue water lily flowering season, July until September is the same season when the Nile water level reaches its peak. During the annual Nile flood...
So I wonder if "lotus flower at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters" just means: "lotus flower who arrises from the waters of the Annual Nile Flood"
The Annual Nile flood is after all what originally created Egypt...Without the annual Nile flood there would be no Egypt...
I talked about this in my posts "The flower of life" and "Lotus and papyrus"...
This is the time when Hathor, who was also Mehet-Weret (The great flood) finally arrives...As a lioness, Sekhmet...I talked about this in my post "Holy Cow" and "Cow and calf ivory"...
PPS: Just learned that the jewel in the lioness's forehead is lapis lazuli, the "water stone"...This would also point at the lioness, flood link...I talked about this link between lapis and water in my post "Lapis lazuli water seal", "Lyres of Ur"...
To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...
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