Robert:
I have just that image; it is all I took. The dogs are knee high to the
men, but they do look like Labradors; maybe the modern ones have been bred for greater
bulk and height? The men's knees will be right at the height of the dogs' spines. I can find for you any number of Assyrians wearing those protective boots with their short garment coming just about to the knees. Wonderful dogs, anyway. They are being led out for the
hunt by their trainers. The
stone is, as you see, broken at left, else I'd have photographed more of the dogs.
PatFederico:
Yes, that is much more like the real
stone, and thank you. I used those for projection on a fairly large screen and wanted to avoid graininess, but the digital scans were taken from 30-year-old Agfachrome (old formula) slides, only ISO 50. I must go back to the B.M.
Scott:
OK. I thought I was taking too much space. An attribute, such as Dionysos'
kantharos or Hermes'
kerykeion or
Artemis the Huntress' hound or Eros' bow or quiver or torch or
oil lamp, can be shown
representationally as
part of a story or an activity
or symbolically by itself as a signifier or presented not in use but as an identifier or as a sign. Greek art
had a hard time with things that couldn't be shown in use or narratively. On the other hand,
Sandan stands on a horned creature, which is not what he rides, as
Marcus Aurelius rides a
horse or
Septimius Severus, even on an
Emesa denarius,
nor is he a
circus performer standing on
his mount; he is not thought of as doing that; in fact, Sandan's animal,
his 'vehicle' mythologically considered, is
his 'vehicle'
attribute,
his symbol: it
stands for him as a bee can stand for Ephesian
Artemis, who does not play with or keep bees, as Aristaios is said to have done. Yet Greek engravers made wonderfully apian bees for Ephesian coins, since they can do so without detracting from their symbolic value.
I used 'attribute' for something associated with a deity, that does
help identify him, that in Greek art is used in narratives and how he employs it and in other-than-Greek art is used to stand for or stand by him, symbolically. Thus, the Nicene Creed, in Greek called the
Symbolon, is not all of faith, much less all of religious experience,
nor is it a prayer: it
stands for what a
Christian believes, so that in principle a non-Christian cannot or will not say it. Forgive the use of space. I know from teaching (or trying hard to teach) how hard this can be.
Pat L.