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Four-winged genius on a jamb of the gate structure at Pasargadae

Date

Authors

Ghirshman, Roman
Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

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Abstract

Description

Ghirshman writes that this represents a four-winged genius, "dressed in the Elamite manner and wearing an elaborate crown recalling the tiaras of Egyptian Horuses. Still visible in the early nineteenth century was an inscription above the genius, reading: 'I Cyrus, the King, the Achaemenid (build this)'." Andre Godard, in The Art of Iran (translated by Michael Heron, New York, F.A. Praeger, 1965), p. 96, writes of this same door jamb: "An inscription, in cuneiform, Persian, Elamite and Babylonian characters, now vanished, identified the personage: 'Cyrus the King, the Achaemenid'. Obviously it can only be a portrait of Cyrus." -- So-called Stele of Cyrus (559-530 BC), 6th century BC, 2.9 m.

Citation

Source

Type

Archives Series

Date created

1962

Access Statement

License Rights

This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.

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