DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4920#0009
INTRODUCTION CONTINUED.
Kitium, Idalium, and Tamassus, in the twenty-first year of his reign, but lost Tamassus
in the thirty-seventh year, when Alexander the Great rewarded Pnytagoras with the terri-
tory for his aid against Tyre; Pygmalion, the last king of Kitium, dethroned by Ptolemy
Soter B.C. 312; and an obscure monarch, Demonikos, to whom it is possible to refer a
coin with a Phoenician legend;1 but his name is entirely Greek, and he can hardly be
brought into the scries before Evagoras. The Phoenician element, and consequently art,
divided the island with the Greek after the age of Evagoras and under the Persian
protectorate, and continued along with the Greek till the age of the Ptolemies; inscrip-
tions in the Phoenician language having been discovered on the pedestals of statues.
There is consequently some difficulty in determining the age of the Asiatic style
of art that is not imitated from the Egyptian. The type of the Cypriote race is shown
by prominent eyes, a large and rather thin nose, and pinched-up features, with the face
unbearded. These may be the Phoenician, as distinct from the Egyptian, and are again
different from those with curled prolix beards of Assyrian or Persian style. To this
class of statues belong those circular caps, or turbans, which do not appear in Egyptian,
Assyrian, or Greek, although in Bactrian art. The introduction of the laurel crown, or
any crown of leaves, upon the head marks a period later still of Phoenician or Cypriote
art, and cannot be made older than the fourth century B.C.
Another often repeated head-dress of these Phoenician figures is the broad diadems
with rosettes, imitated from the Assyrian style of head-dress, although probably of Phoe-
nician work. They occur on the ivory ornaments found at Nimroud, perhaps contem-
poraneous with Assur-natsir-apli, about B.C. 800; and the figures of the Assyrian Venus,
the goddess Nana, or Ishtar, of ivory, wear them. It is true that this goddess is
represented nude, whereas the Cypriote figures are draped. The features of the figures,
however, bear a marked resemblance to the Assyrian. The crown of the Assyrian mon-
arch is decorated with the same rosette; and Assurbaniapli, B.C. 650, and his principal
officer wear a head-dress of a broad band with like rosettes. The figures with this
1 See Dc Vogue's Melanges, Revue Numismatique, N.S. xii., 1S67.
Kitium, Idalium, and Tamassus, in the twenty-first year of his reign, but lost Tamassus
in the thirty-seventh year, when Alexander the Great rewarded Pnytagoras with the terri-
tory for his aid against Tyre; Pygmalion, the last king of Kitium, dethroned by Ptolemy
Soter B.C. 312; and an obscure monarch, Demonikos, to whom it is possible to refer a
coin with a Phoenician legend;1 but his name is entirely Greek, and he can hardly be
brought into the scries before Evagoras. The Phoenician element, and consequently art,
divided the island with the Greek after the age of Evagoras and under the Persian
protectorate, and continued along with the Greek till the age of the Ptolemies; inscrip-
tions in the Phoenician language having been discovered on the pedestals of statues.
There is consequently some difficulty in determining the age of the Asiatic style
of art that is not imitated from the Egyptian. The type of the Cypriote race is shown
by prominent eyes, a large and rather thin nose, and pinched-up features, with the face
unbearded. These may be the Phoenician, as distinct from the Egyptian, and are again
different from those with curled prolix beards of Assyrian or Persian style. To this
class of statues belong those circular caps, or turbans, which do not appear in Egyptian,
Assyrian, or Greek, although in Bactrian art. The introduction of the laurel crown, or
any crown of leaves, upon the head marks a period later still of Phoenician or Cypriote
art, and cannot be made older than the fourth century B.C.
Another often repeated head-dress of these Phoenician figures is the broad diadems
with rosettes, imitated from the Assyrian style of head-dress, although probably of Phoe-
nician work. They occur on the ivory ornaments found at Nimroud, perhaps contem-
poraneous with Assur-natsir-apli, about B.C. 800; and the figures of the Assyrian Venus,
the goddess Nana, or Ishtar, of ivory, wear them. It is true that this goddess is
represented nude, whereas the Cypriote figures are draped. The features of the figures,
however, bear a marked resemblance to the Assyrian. The crown of the Assyrian mon-
arch is decorated with the same rosette; and Assurbaniapli, B.C. 650, and his principal
officer wear a head-dress of a broad band with like rosettes. The figures with this
1 See Dc Vogue's Melanges, Revue Numismatique, N.S. xii., 1S67.