Enkidu and Gilgamesh fighting the Bull of Heaven
| Kategória | Cylinder Seals |
| Description of the seal image | The scene is framed by line borders at the top and bottom. Enkidu and Gilgamesh grasp the Bull of Heaven with one hand and brandish weapons with the other while stepping on the hybrid creature's legs. Enkidu wears a belted, fringed kilt, whereas Gilgamesh wears a conical headdress and a long, broad-belted, fringed, open robe. Behind them are the tasselled spade of Marduk (marru) and the stylus of Nabu on the same stand. Above the Bull of Heaven are a crescent moon, the Sibitti (Pleiades) and a nine-rayed, globe-centred star. |
| Figures, motifs/symbols |
- borderlines (2): line borders at the top and bottom - crescent moon - hero 1: Enkidu, bearded, wearing a belted, fringed kilt, brandishing a dagger - hero 2: Gilgamesh, bearded, wearing a conical headdress and a long, broad-belted, fringed, open robe, brandishing a dagger - human-headed winged bull (aladlammu): Bull of Heaven, stumbling - Sibitti (Pleiades) - spade of Marduk (marru): on a stand - star: nine-rayed, globe-centred - stylus of Nabu: on a stand |
| Subcategory | cylinder seal |
| Collection | Museum of Fine Arts Boston / MFA |
| Museum number | MFA 65.1415 |
| Culture | Assyro-Babylonian |
| Provenance | ex-Moussa Collection; purchased by the MFA from R. Moussa, through Ali Tehranian (Little Falls, NJ) on 10 November 1965 |
| First occurence | before 1965 |
| Archaeological context | N/A |
| Registration number | N/A |
| Dimensions (mm): height, diameter | h: 22.9, d: 11.2 |
| Material and features | "orange carnelian" |
| Style | modelled |
| Scene | contest, mythological |
| Bibliography |
Ataç 2010, 134–135 fig. 107. Ataç, M.-A.: The Mythology of Kingship in Neo-Assyrian Art, Cambridge, 2010. Ataç 2010, 262 and 425 fig. 1. Ataç, M.-A.: “Representations and Resonances of Gilgamesh in Neo-Assyrian Art.” In: Steymans, H.U. (ed.): Gilgamesch. Ikonographie eines Helden – Gilgamesh: Epic and Iconography. (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 245) Fribourg – Göttingen, 2010, 261–286 and 425–434. MFA: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/163850/ [accessed: 13-11-2023]. |