The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

material evidence to mean that Herodotus’ account is unreliable or that Achaemenid
sculpture did not feature this subject. Therefore, she includes this passage of Herodotus
in her discussion of ancient texts referring to royal Achaemenid sculpture, and says that
“sculptural representations of a man on horseback (and perhaps the king on horseback)
might well have formed an important part of Achaemenid repertoire.” 478 That the image
of the king as a horseman was not foreign to Achaemenid culture is demonstrated by
Achaemenid royal inscriptions, more specifically, the statement of Darius inscribed on
the façade of his tomb at Naqsh-i Rustam: “As a horseman I am a good horseman. As a
bowman I am a good bowman both on foot and on horseback. As a spearman I am a
good spearman both on foot and on horseback.” 479 The centrality of horsemanship in
Achaemenid life is further attested in Herodotus, who states that that the Persians “train
their sons from their fifth to their twentieth year in three things only: horsemanship,
archery and truth telling” (1.136.2). His statement is in good accord with the image of
the Persian horseman, recognized by his distinct cap and the deeply fringed Persian
saddle cloth that appears on a considerable number of seals, gems, coins, and also on
metal vessels and swords that have all been dated to the Achaemenid period. 480 To this
478
M. C. Root, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art. Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of
Empire (Acta Iranica 19; Leiden, 1979) 129-130.
479
R. G. Kent, Old Persian. Grammar. Texts. Lexicon (New Haven, 1950; second rev. ed., 1953) 140
(DNb, lines 40-45).
480
For the image of the Persian horseman on seals, see J. Boardman, Persia and the West: An
Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art (London, 2000) 161, fig. 5.11, 172, fig.
5.40, 173, fig. 5.46. According to A. Farkas, “The Horse and Rider in Achaemenid Art,” Persica 4 (1969)
66, n. 34, the coins are those of Evagoras II of Salamis in Cyprus and date from his reign as Persian satrap,
351-349 B.C. She also mentions, 66-67, that the image appears on a silver roundel from the Oxus
Treasure, and on a gold sword hilt that was found in a Scythian late fifth-/early fourth-century tomb at the
site of Chertomlyk in South Russia. For further bibliography on these objects, see Farkas, 66-67, nos. 35-
36. To this evidence should be added the gold figure of a male rider from the Oxus treasure, and also a
bronze figurine of a horse and a rider of Achaemenid date (fifth-fourth centuries B.C.), both housed
currently at the British museum: J. Curtis and N. Tallis, eds., Forgotten Empire: The World of Achaemenid
Persia (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2005) 226, ns. 408-409. A Persian horseman is also depicted on each
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