ISHTAR "QUEEN OF THE NIGHT"
- ($50 US)
1800 BC
Terracotta stone-cast relief, 230 x 170 mm (approx 9 x 7 inches) with back-hanger & parchment description.
Reproduction of the famous Burney Relief, an 1800 BC Babylonian terracotta. The relief portrays a nude winged goddess with eagle's talons, flanked by two wide-eyed owls and perched upon supine lions. It is dated to the Old Babylonian period of Hammurabi.
In private ownership for many years, the original was purchased by the British Museum in 2003 as part of its 250th anniversary celebrations. After it was scientifically validated, museum researchers realized it was not a Babylonian Lilith Demon as originally believed but actually the well-known goddess Ishtar and renamed her "Queen of the Night."
Immortalized on seals and tablets for over five millennia, Ishtar is the celestial goddess, Queen of the Night, who grew so bright she drove the sun god into the underworld and brought disaster upon the earth. Mythic depictions of her are typically accompanied by lions which are presumed to indicate the constellation of Leo. Ishtar's feathered wings designate her status as a heavenly or stellar goddess. The attendant owls signify how, for a while, she became ruler of the night.
The Sumerian chronicles metaphorically describe Ishtar's journey through the Underworld, wresting the Tablets of Destiny from a startled Earth god, as she proceeds to take control of the sky and unleash the elemental forces of the great "Bull of Heaven" upon a hapless world.
Postage:
Ground: $15 Australian dollars - Australia New Zealand
Air: $17.50 USD - Asia, India, Pacific, Japan
Air: $21.00 USD - USA & Canada
Air: $26.00 USD - Europe, Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, Mediterranean, Africa, South America & most other locations.
Combined postage when required postal insurance or more expensive registered mail available on request.
Local Australian ground postage 2-3 days
Airmail Europe, USA & Canada 7-14 days
