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. 32