The Fifth Thousand Years: Plate I

PLATE I

{facing page 48}

Limestone monolith at Pasargadae in Persia sculpured in low relief with a portrait figure of the Fravashi or "genius" of Cyrus the Great, the friend of the Jews. The figure of Cyrus is rather larger than life-size, and is winged after the manner of gods and kings on the Assyrian bas-reliefs; and the decoration of the hem of his garment is Assyrian in character. His crown was copied from some Egyptian bas-relief sculptured with the figure of a king, and represents the horus Khnemu or Amen, the two cobras of the Upper and Lower Country, and the triple symbol of royalty resting on solar disks and terminating in disks. The inscription "I [am] Cyrus, the King, the Achaemenian" has been broken off. (See page 190.)

[From Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol V.]