DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0339
TJIK ALABASTER XERXES VASE. 669
Xerxes, and also in its material, which is porphyry,
not alabaster.8
There can be no doubt, as has been shown by
Letroime, that the name Xerxes on these vases is
that of the celebrated Persian king.
The custom of inscribing the name of tbe reign-
ing monarch on alabastra was probably borrowed
from Egypt. Such vases have been found in tbat
country inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Xeco
(Nekao II.), who reigned B.C. 609, and also with
the names of other, monarchs of the twenty-sixth
dynasty.
The same practice seems also to have prevailed
in Assyria; for a vase is extant inscribed with the
name of Sardanapalus.
These vases must have been Greatly esteemed by
the Persians; for, when Cambyses despatched tlie
Ichthyophagi on an embassy to the -Ethiopians,
he sent among the presents an alabaster vase of
unguents, ju-ugou aXa/Sao-rco*/.1' Similar alabastra
were found by Alexander the Great in the baths
of Darius.1
If such vases were greatly prized by the Persian
kings, there is nothing improbable in the con-
jecture that the one found in the ^Mausoleum may
have been presented to some ancestor of Mausolus
by Xerxes, and preserved as an heirloom in his
family.j
It is observable, that in all the four specimens
s Published by Mr. Pettigrew, Archseologia, xxxi. pi. vi.
p. 275.
11 Herod, iii. 20. ' Plutarch, Alexander, c. 20.
J Perhaps to the first Artemisia, though there is no proof that
Mausolus was descended from her. (See ante, p. 31.)—C T. N.
Xerxes, and also in its material, which is porphyry,
not alabaster.8
There can be no doubt, as has been shown by
Letroime, that the name Xerxes on these vases is
that of the celebrated Persian king.
The custom of inscribing the name of tbe reign-
ing monarch on alabastra was probably borrowed
from Egypt. Such vases have been found in tbat
country inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Xeco
(Nekao II.), who reigned B.C. 609, and also with
the names of other, monarchs of the twenty-sixth
dynasty.
The same practice seems also to have prevailed
in Assyria; for a vase is extant inscribed with the
name of Sardanapalus.
These vases must have been Greatly esteemed by
the Persians; for, when Cambyses despatched tlie
Ichthyophagi on an embassy to the -Ethiopians,
he sent among the presents an alabaster vase of
unguents, ju-ugou aXa/Sao-rco*/.1' Similar alabastra
were found by Alexander the Great in the baths
of Darius.1
If such vases were greatly prized by the Persian
kings, there is nothing improbable in the con-
jecture that the one found in the ^Mausoleum may
have been presented to some ancestor of Mausolus
by Xerxes, and preserved as an heirloom in his
family.j
It is observable, that in all the four specimens
s Published by Mr. Pettigrew, Archseologia, xxxi. pi. vi.
p. 275.
11 Herod, iii. 20. ' Plutarch, Alexander, c. 20.
J Perhaps to the first Artemisia, though there is no proof that
Mausolus was descended from her. (See ante, p. 31.)—C T. N.