MIDDLE EAST HISTORY POLITICS CULTURE XIII MIDDLE EAST XIII | Page 32
same motif, but alters it to suit his own personal ideology. Rather than
granting credit for the smiting of his foes to a god, he takes the martial glory
for himself as a sort of offering to the Warlike Ishtar, who is seated in front of
this action. 8 Sargon is thus emulating ED rulers very closely in the stele, with
similar scenes of leading his marching army and the Net, but he also injects
his own unique concepts into the stele by inserting himself into the role that
had been reserved for the city-god. Though Sargon does show his piety by
performing this act in front of Ishtar, he wants himself to be the one smiting
his mortal opponents rather than delegating credit to divine assistance for his
achievements on the battlefield. Also critical is the image of the king in the
Net being vanquished by Sargon. This king is probably Lugalzagesi. 9 He is
shown as distinct from his troops, with his long hair hanging down. Thus the
Shushgal Net evolved to be even more personal for Sargon than it had been
for Eannatum, with the various alterations adding to the Akkadian king’s
individual prestige.
The case of these monuments to royal achievements is important to
seeing the development of iconography and symbolism in the mid-third
millennium. Kings were becoming more overt in their depictions of military
acts, and this was apparent both in the textual and artistic record. Though the
Shushgal Net is not attested after Sargon’s Victory Stele, the fact that Sargon
would look back to Eannatum for iconography shows how much continuity
and conservatism there was in Mesopotamian symbolism and kingship. At its
core, the imagery utilized in these depictions convey the same message as in
the ED, and shows Sargon’s (and perhaps his successors?) indebtedness to past
kings rather than an inclination to revolutionize kingship. It is also important
for the fact that despite being “forgotten” in the historical literary tradition,
ED royal ideology remained very important into the Sargonic period. Though
many of their names may have been lost in time, the royal ideology and
iconography of ED kings remained strong well into the Sargonic period,
illustrating the inseparable nature of the two periods. Rather than being an
unprecedented revolutionary dynasty in the history of Mesopotamia, Sargon
and his successors may have been more similar ideologically to ED monarchs
than previously thought.
8
9
Ibid., p. 87.
Nigro L., The Two Steles of Sargon, p. 87.
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