Bahu, the Queen of Kis, has not cried to thee.”
He adds in a note that Zamama was the Sun-god of Kis, and was consequently identified with Adar by the mythologists. On a contract-stone he is symbolized by an eagle, which is said to be “the image of the southern sun of Kis.”
It was claimed in a former paper (Feb. 1896) that “the Southern sun” was “the sun of the winter solstice,” and that Gula (= Bahu) was the name of the constellation, or of some stars in the constellation Aquarius (V. [p. 50]). In these lines Bahu, as I have supposed, Aquarius, and Zamama, symbolised by the Eagle, the image of the Southern sun or winter solstice, are closely associated.
Mythological references to the Eagle alone are also to be met with which point to the Celestial Eagle (Aquila) marking the winter solstice in lieu of the constellation Aquarius, as for instance the Babylonian legend of the ambitious storm-bird, Zu,[40] who stole the tablets of destiny, and thus sought to vie in power with “the great gods.” Here we may find allusions to the substitution (deemed by some, no doubt, unauthorized) of an extra-Zodiacal for a Zodiacal constellation.
[40] Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. 666.
Again, in Grecian mythology the Eagle is sent by Zeus to carry Ganymede up to heaven, and in Grecian astronomy Ganymede is placed in the constellation Aquarius. It does not therefore seem unreasonable to suppose that the Eagle associated in the Persepolitan bas-reliefs with the Lion, the Bull, and the Scorpion (as at [Plate IV.]), is the constellational Eagle, symbolizing the winter solstice, and that the compound animal is emblematic of the four seasons of the year, and also, it may be, of the four quarters of the world.
If to the composite monster of the bas-reliefs we ascribe an astronomic motive, we shall be ready to grant the same to other Tauric symbolisms prominent in the Persepolitan ruins.
With full conviction we shall recognize in the demi-bulls which crowned the columns in Persepolis and Susa representations of the demi-bull of the Zodiac. The resemblance is so striking that words are scarcely required to point it out when once the outlines of the two figures have been compared ([Plate V.]). In the spirited description of these capitals, quoted here from Perrot and Chipiez,[41] are some lines, marked with italics, which might be applied with exactness to the demi-bulls of the Zodiac.
[41] Histoire de l’Art dans l’antiquité, Perse, p. 519.
PLATE V.