tion accompanies. Here, again, we have a scene of kosmic harmony; Divinity, Sun-god, and Moon-god, sun, moon, and planets, and the Tree of Life, which, being placed under the Divinity, is apparently a symbol of him in his effects. The direct connexion between the Crescent-moon and the Unicorn appears very strikingly. The Moon-god stands upon the Unicorn exactly in the same way as in other instances 1 he stands upon his crescent. XIX. The Assyrian sculptures show many representations of unicornic animals, e.g. : 1. Assurnatsirpal hunting Wild Bulls (about B.C. 884), North West Palace, Nimrud. Two bulls are represented, each with a single large horn. 2. Assyrian Oxen (Koyunjik).2 3. The Ibex or Gazelle.3 4. The familiar representation of a small Fallowdeer, carried by a branch-bearing divinity. This treatment is apparently partly conventional, but I do not think with Sir G. Wilkinson that the sculptors represented under the form of the Unicorn-bull the Rhinoceros of which they had only heard, since widely different animals are so portrayed. Some representations show the two horns of the Ibex. '5 XX. A Cylinder, 'found on the site of Nineveh,' shows above the emblem of divinity, sun, crescentmoon, and seven planets, as in No. XVIII. Below, a 1 Vide a Cylinder (A. M. ii. 16). 3 Ibid. i. 521. 2 Ibid. i. 351. 4 Rawlinson, Herod. ii. 225. 5 Rich, Second Memoir on Babylon, fig. 11. man on horseback is apparently pursuing a Unicornantelope, in attitude almost rampant and regardant. Beyond this, another Unicorn, also regardant, is standing suckling a young kid. A human figure, apparently a priest, stands before a trident and another emblem. The combination is evidently symbolical, but its signification is obscure. The regardant attitude of the Unicorns is very noticeable. XXI. Amongst miscellaneous Assyrian unicornic representations may be noticed ; 1. A most heraldic pair of Unicorns' heads on a clay tablet.1 2. The head of a Unicorn-bull at the end of a chariot-pole, on which are also carved two winged Unicorn-bulls respectant.2 3. A Unicorn-ibex above a lotus-flower, from the royal cylinder of Sennacherib. XXII. D'Hancarville and Taylor the Editor of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, give the following unicornic coin-types, said to be Mardian ;— 5 1. A coin from Hunter's collection. A composite animal with one horn, a bull's body and legs, wings, and human head, upon which the modius (cornmeasure), a usual adjunct of Serapis, whose cult was introduced into Egypt from Sinope. Rev. The Tri 1 Rawlinson, A. M. i. 265. 3 Recherches, vol. i. pl. xv. 2 Ibid. 408. 5 Vide R. B. Jr., G. D. M. i. 390. The Mardians were a Persian tribe (Herod. i. 125), whose name, according to Sir H. C. Rawlinson, signifies 'heroes,' and who occupied the mountain range south of Persepolis (vide Prof. Rawlinson, Herod. i. 345). 6 Vide G. D. M. ii. 122 et seq. In voc. Serapis. quetra. Here for the first time we meet with this purely lunar emblem, i.e., three crescent moons issuing from the full moon, in connexion with the Unicorn. 2. Two Unicorn-bulls or Bull and Cow addorsed, after the type of the Persepolis capitals; above, the Triquetra. Rev. The Triquetra. 3. Unicorn-bull sinking down as if dying; above, a circle. The victory of sun over moon, or the waning moon (?). Rev. The Triquetra; variant phase as three legs.1 XXIII. Lion pulling down a Unicorn-bull.2 Calcedony. Of this example Mr. King remarks, The technique of this intaglio is altogether Assyrian, and the subject justifies the conclusion that it is of Phoenician workmanship.' XXIV. The conjoined fore-quarters of two Winged [Unicorn-] Bulls.' Mr. King adds, Probably to be understood as an astrological talisman, allusive to the Sign Taurus. Sard scarabeus.' The zodiacal Taurus, however, is not unicornic, and the type is the same as that of the Persepolitan capitals, which are certainly not zodiacal. It is singular how rarely those who reproduce these representations have noticed their unicornic character. XXV. The coins of Samos show a very interesting type;-A lion's scalp, lion's head, or lion's head with open mouth. Rev. (of the first type) Demi-unicorn 1 Vide sec. IX. 2 A. G. R. vol. ii. pl. liii. fig. 1. s Ib. pl. xvi. fig. 1. · bull. At Samos was a shrine of Dionysos Kechenôs,1 the Gaper,' a solar divinity like the Apollôn Kechenôs of Elis; the open-mouthed Lion being a type of the raging, devouring Sun, Athamas. The coin-type thus represented Day and Night, the Lion and the Unicorn, or the Sun and Moon. XXVI. The Unicorn-bull, in one instance regardant, appears also upon some Kretan coins. The circumstance of a single horn [as shown on various coins] perplexed the learned medallist Pelerin, who remarked it, without being able to offer any explanation of it.'4 Kretan coins show various Semitic types, e.g., l'arbre cosmique, identique à l'arbre de vie.'5 XXVII. On the cup of Kourion 6 in Kypros are shown, amongst other devices, two unicorn-goats, each standing on one side of some conventional object, and with one fore foot resting upon it. The twisted horn in each case is near the Tree, whose type is well reproduced at the present time by the trees in toy Noah's arks. XXVIII. The Unicorn also occurs in early [Egyptian] paintings;' but, according to Sir G. Wilkinson, 1 Aelianus, Peri Zôôn, vii. 48. 2 Clem. Alex. Protrept. ii. 38. 3 As to Athamas, vide G. D. M. i. 247 et seq. Sir G. W. Cox, whose candour is equal to his ability, now agrees with me that Athamas is identical with Tammuz (Introd. 67, note 2). M. Darmesteter connects the name with an Aryan root ath, whence Athênê, etc. (O et A. 55, note 2). The incidents of the myth will serve to solve philological doubts. 4 Taylor, in Calmet's Dict., vol. V. xxii. 5 Lenormant, Les Origines, 570; vide sec. XII. subsec. 3. 6 Ap. Clermont-Ganneau, L'Imagerie Phénicienne et la Mythologie Iconologique chez les Grecs, 1880, pl. iv. 6 'the Egyptian unicorn, even in the early time of the twelfth dynasty, was the rhinoceros.' Yet at the same time we find a Unicorn-antelope depicted, the animal couchant, the horn long and straight, and the tail standing straight up in an unnatural manner, in exactly the same way as the tail of the Kamic Gryphon is represented, an additional circumstance in illustration of the fact that the representation is symbolical. The sound of the Unicorn-ideograph is given as St., Typhon,' and that of the Gryphon as Baru, Baal; Set, Typhon.' Now 'Set ou Soutekh personnifie l'ardeur et la force redoutable du soleil '— Gryphon; but as the meurtrier d'Osiris, il est le dieu du mal et personnifie les ténèbres,' and may thus be connected with the nocturnal unicorn. Sir G. Wilkinson observes, Many animals are introduced in the sculptures, . . . . some of which are purely the offspring of disordered imagination; and the winged quadrupeds, sphinxes, or lions, with the head of a hawk or of a snake, and some others equally fanciful and unnatural, can only be compared to the creations of heraldry.' A disordered. imagination' should be the last thing appealed to in explanation of such creations; in the abstract the same explanation might be given of the forms of the gods; and it is much more probable to suppose that some reason, symbolical or otherwise, underlies the efforts of the artist. 5 1 Vide Rawlinson, Herod. ii. 225. 2 Bunsen, Egypt's Place, i. 526. 4 Pierret, Essai sur la Mythologie Égyptienne, 79. 5 Ancient Egyptians, edit. 1878, vol. ii. p. 93. 3 Ibid. 568. |