[ Previous ][Contents][ Next ]

with her hair falling over her shoulders and her, right breast uncovered.(84) Her dress consists of a veil which hangs down at the back of her head, and a chiton, which is held together by means of a circular fibula on the left shoulder, while both the usual diadem across the forehead and the himation are lacking. Her eyes are wide open, the iris circumscribed by two incised circles as on the preceding bust; in her right hand she holds a two-handled bowl, while the left rests on the son's left shoulder. On the right breast as well as on the inner side of the left upper arm appear small incised strokes, on the breast still with traces of red paint, which we also find on two other reliefs of similar composition. One of the latter is in the Museum of Istanbul, the other in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen; both represent a mother and daughter.(85) In Simonsen's commentary on the relief in Copenhagen, these marks are explained as tattooing,(86) but it seems far more plausible to regard them as representing real cuttings, a funeral custom well known on Semitic ground and repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament-forbidden both by the Deuteronomic and the Levitic laws.(87) In favor of this interpretation is also the fact that, in all three cases these incisions are found on a woman obviously represented as in mourning.

Zebîdâ's hair is divided in vertical locks each ending in a big curl on the forehead. He wears a little moustache and a very short beard, his eyes are large and executed in a similar way as his mother's; his dress is the usual chiton and himation, but arranged in a way suggestive of Yarhibôlâ (bust nr. 11), with the difference that the himation passes from the left shoulder straight across the front of the neck and around instead of down under the right elbow and up over the right shoulder. The right hand is held against the chest, while the left holds what looks like the hilt of a sword. It is decorated with a series of tongues or narrow leaves as on two other reliefs from Palmyra where the men represented have each a small whip in one hand and a camel is figured in relief to the right of their heads.(88) A similar object is found on a Palmyrene bust in the Museum at Istanbul on which a horse is represented in low relief to the right of the man's head ; the right hand here also holds a whip.(89) On three funerary busts the left hand holds the same hilt-like object while the right hand holds a whip,(90) and on four busts-two in the Baalbek museum,(91) two formerly in French collections(92)-the same object is held in the right hand while the left hand rests in the himation or is held against the chiton, as

84. Studier, p. 26 and the similarly represented ladies: Studier, PS 252 (v. Hahn Collection, Berlin), PS 378, pictured in Ingholt, Acta Archaeologica, 111, 1932, p. 11, fig. 5 (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) and PS 468 (Museum at Istanbul). Furthermore, a relief in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen, published by Simonsen, op. cit. p. 9, A2, pl. II and also pictured in Choix, pl. XXX, 6.
85. Studier, PS 468, and Simonsen, op. cit. pl. II (see the preceding note).
86. Simonsen, op. cit. p. 9.
87. Deuteronomy XIV, 1 f.-Leviticus XIX, 27 f; XXI, 1-5. Cf. Frazer, Folk-Lore in the 		    Old Testament, III, London 1919, p. 270-73.
88. Seyrig, Syria, XIV, 1933, Pl. XX, 1 and 2.
89. Studier, p. 103, PS 119.
90. Choix, pl. XXX, 12; Studier, p. 108, PS 168 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek)-Studier, p. 116, PS 227 and p. 120, PS 259 (both at the Museum at Istanbul).
91. Studier, p. 103, PS 116 and 118.
92. Studier, p. 103, PS 117.-Belles gravures anciennes du XVIIe au XIXe sičcle. Monnaies antiques, Vente du 14 Dec. 1931, p. 43, nr. 649: Hairā, son of Hairān, son of Hairān, son of 'Ogeilū (The Bertone Collection).

[ Previous ][Contents][ Next ]
Created by the Digital Documentation Center at AUB in collaboration with Høgskolen i Østfold, Norway.

980519 pas - Email: hseeden@aub.edu.lb