Winged hero grasping human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx) on either side


Winged hero grasping human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx) on either side
Kategória Cylinder Seals
Description of the seal image The scene is framed by line borders at the top and bottom. A bearded winged hero grasps a rampant human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx) on either side, each by the beard. He wears a long, tiered and fringed open robe over a short tunic. The upper part of his garment is decorated with a net or crosshatch pattern. Behind his legs is a rhomb, while behind the hybrid creatures are a corrected eight-rayed star and a crescent moon above a fish.
Figures, motifs/symbols - borderlines (2): line borders at the top and bottom
- crescent moon
- fish: decorated with a net or crosshatch pattern
- human-headed winged lions (shedus, sphinxes) (2): rampant, bearded
- rhomb
- star: eight-rayed, corrected
- winged hero: bearded, four-winged, wearing a long, tiered and fringed open robe over a short tunic; the upper part of his garment is decorated with a net or crosshatch pattern
Subcategory cylinder seal
Collection The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Museum number WAM 42.666
Condition, shape slightly chipped upper and lower edges; surface faults partly distort the figures
Culture Assyro-Babylonian
Provenance ex-Henry Walters Collection (Baltimore); inherited by Sadie Jones (Mrs Henry Walters) in 1931 (New York); purchased by Joseph Brummer (Paris and New York) in 1941; purchased by The Walters Art Museum in 1941
First occurence before 1931
Archaeological context N/A
Registration number N/A
Dimensions (mm): height, diameter h: 35, d: 15
Material and features "carved chalcedony"
Style modelled
Scene contest
Bibliography

Niederreiter – Lőrincz 2025, 128 fig. 33.



Niederreiter Z. – Lőrincz H.: Catalogue of Cylinder Seals in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France: Middle Assyrian and First-Millennium-BCE Seals Added to the Collection from 1909 Onward. (Antiqua et Orientalia 12 – Assyriologia 15) Budapest, 2025.



WAM: https://art.thewalters.org/detail/19409/cylinder-seal-with-genius-and-human-headed-lions/ [accessed: 11-11-2023].