ArtReplic

Bull — a mythological animal from Mesopotamia, Ishtar Gate

Mesopotamia, Babylon, Ishtar gate
VII-VI centuries BC NS.
Original: brick, glaze
Berlin, Pergamon Museum

By order of King Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon was surrounded by a double wall with eight gates. One of these was the Ishtar Gate, located at the end of the Processional Road. On New Year's Day, a procession with statues of the gods took place here.

The gate is dedicated to the goddess Ishtar or Inanna, as the Sumerians called her. Ishtar is the goddess of love, fertility and war. The powerful goddess is beautiful, wise and perceptive, she holds in her hands the fate of all that exists, bestows luck and vitality on people. The gate was made of bricks covered with a blue glaze that glittered in the sun. Blue is the color of the goddess Ishtar. The gates and the Processional Road are decorated with bas-reliefs of mythical animals: dragons, bulls and lions.

Bulls, considered incredibly strong and ferocious, were dedicated to the god Adad, the god of rains and storms, fertility and harvest. The bull embodied the power of natural forces that destroy and create.

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The genius of dance - a copy of Thorvaldsen's relief

Replica

B. Thorvaldsen, Denmark.

Original: plaster. Copenhagen, Thorvaldsen Museum

In Roman religion, the genius is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like a guardian angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died.

Each individual place had a genius (genius loci) and so did powerful objects, such as volcanoes. The concept extended to some specifics: the genius of the theatre, of vineyards, and of festivals, which made performances successful, grapes grow, and celebrations succeed, respectively. It was extremely important in the Roman mind to propitiate the appropriate genii for the major undertakings and events of their lives.

The Christian theologian Augustine equated the Christian "soul" with the Roman genius, citing Varro as attributing the rational powers and abilities of every human being to their genius.