The Assyrian Royal Lion Hunt, #1 – British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England

In ancient Assyria, lion-hunting was considered the sport of kings, symbolic of the ruling monarch’s duty to protect and fight for his people. The sculpted reliefs in the British Museum illustrate the sporting exploits of the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-631 BCE) and were created for his palace at Nineveh (in modern-day northern Iraq). The hunt scenes, full of tension and realism, rank among the finest achievements of Assyrian Art. They depict the release of the lions, the ensuing chase and subsequent killing.

In these two panels, we see King Ashurbanipal driving his spear into the mouth of one lion, while a second lion, which had been hit by arrows and left for dead, leaps up to maul the king’s spare horse. Attendants gallop to the rescue from the left. In the next episode, the king has killed both lions. Some attendants admire them; others, kneeling in disgrace, were probably the ones who had allowed their horses to lag too far behind the king’s.