Cylinder Seal: Lion Chasing a Stag

This chalcedony cylinder seal features an image of a lion chasing a stag. Both animals are in mid-leap, with their legs extended almost horizontally. The lion has large paws and a long tail that flies out behind it. Its face and mane are rendered in minute detail, with the nose, eye, ear, and individual tufts of fur all shown. The musculature of the lion’s body is modeled, especially at the shoulder. The stag’s body is more flat, though it is rounded at the shoulder. Its eye, ear, and a four-point antler are all shown. There is no groundline in the scene. A large chip is missing from beneath the stag. Lion attacks occur on Persian and Greek seals of the sixth through fourth centuries BCE. It is difficult to identify where this seal was made, since the modeled carving style is not specific to a certain region. However, cylinder seals were in wide use in the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Furthermore, the impression of a seal on a cuneiform tablet excavated at Persepolis features a comparable scene of lions attacking a stag (1); the carving style and details of this seal are similar to those that appear on the Harvard seal. NOTE 1. J. E. Gates, “The Ethnicity Name Game: What Lies Behind ‘Graeco-Persian?’” Ars Orientalis 32 (2002) fig. 1.