Identifier: ninevehpersepoli00vaux (find matches)
Title: Nineveh and Persepolis: an historical sketch of ancient Assyria and Persia, with an account of the recent researches in those countries
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: Vaux, W. S. W. (William Sandys Wright), 1818-1885
Subjects:
Publisher: London : A. Hall, Virtue & co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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n the probablemeaning of these extraordinary sculptures, and the difficulty oftheir interpretation has led to the wildest dreams and the mostextravagant theories. Sir II. K. Porter considers, that they meandifferent achievements directed to one common end, representingunder the figure, which he calls the Pontiff King, the ease withwhich the united powers of Pieligion and regal authority vanquishthe enemies of the true faith, and that this faith, from datelessperiods in the Persian annals to the Arab conquest, was theMithraic Mystery, an unceasing contest between Ormazd, theLight of the Universe, and Ahriman, the Origin of Darkness.The hero of the conquest, he thinks, may be Darius Hystaspes, orXerxes; the beasts he encounters, purely allegorical. He imagines,that, as the Chehel Minar might have served as the great receptionhall of the palace, so this building, in which these colossal sculpturesremain, was intended as the place for public duties, and, possibly,one of the temples. ^y^.-
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PontirT-KinC (P^.■^•■r.-:i =i coAi. IX.) PERSEPOLIS. 301 Such is a biief account of these celebrated ruins, drawn inchief from the latest and fullest description of Sir R. K. Porter,•who examined them with great care, and made many drawings ofthe most impoitant objects still visible. The intense heat,produced by the reflection from the platform and the rocky moun-tain above, at last brought on a fever, which compelled him toabandon his interesting researches, ere he had brought thementirely to a close; and he expresses the most lively regret thathe was unable to pass a few more days in a place and amongruins which possessed the loadstone influence over him ofinexhaustible interest. It becomes an important question to determine, as far as pos-sible, the comparative date of the different monuments whichremain at Persepolis. We have stated the conjecture of SirE. K. Porter, that some of the ruins are the work of Egyptianartists, or of persons taught by the Egyptians and familiar

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