'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎564] (629/714)

564
PERSIA
surface, at a height of 300 feet from the ground, the triumphal
engravings of Darius son of Hystaspes, and the cuneiform record of
his conquering reign, first copied and deciphered nearly fifty years
ago by Sir H. Rawlinson. The name is variously spelt and pro
nounced as Behistun or Bisitun, and was the Mons Bagistanus or
V>a^iGTavov opos of the classical writers. Bisitun might mean
either ' twenty pillars' or ' without pillars,' but Baghestan has been
supposed by modern scholars to signify ' abode of the gods,' which
would agree with the Atos- opos or title given to it by Diodorus
Siculus. 1 If his account, cited from Ctesias, be credited, the sculp
tures of Semiramis, whom he alleges to have visited the place on
her march from Babylon to Ecbatana, and to have caused her own
image and that of her hundred guards to be graven on the rock,
must have been obliterated by successors or have perished in the lapse
of time. Before the secret of the cuneiform alphabet had been
won, the rock and its aerial bas-reliefs had been made known to
Europe by the descriptions of a number of travellers; but how
deeply their ignorance allowed them to plunge, and how wild a
goose chase they were led by a fine imagination, may be seen from
the conjectures of the romantic Ker Porter, that the principal sculp
ture represented Shalmaneser and the ten captive tribes of Israel;
of the Frenchman Gardanne that they were Christ and the twelve
disciples; and of Keppel, that the train of prisoners were the
attendants of Esther, with the queen at their head, supplicating
King Ahasuerus on behalf of her condemned countrymen !
We now know that the bas-reliefs are those of Darius and of the
rebels, tied to each other by the neck, whom he overcame, and
Sculptures u P on the prostrate body of one of whom his heel is
of Danus planted. Behind the king stand two warriors armed
with bow and spear. The humiliation of the conquered is typified
by their diminutive size, but the majesty of the king demands a
superhuman stature. That there may be no mistake, tablets with
the names of those referred to are placed above the monarch and
the prisoners. Over the head of the king himself we read : ' I am
Darius the king, the king of kings, the king of Persia, the great
king of the provinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of
Arsames, the Achfemenian. Says Darius the king: My father
was Hystaspes ; of Hystaspes, the father was Arsames ; of Arsames
1 I should prefer simply to translate Baghestan as the 1 place of gardens,' and
to regard Bisitun and Bostan as versions, or contractions, of the same name.