Stele of the Storm God Adad
Unknown · Neo-Assyrian period, reign of Tiglath-pileser III, 744-727 BC
A bearded god stands on the back of a bull, brandishing a bundle of lightning in each hand, on a basalt stele over a metre high. He wears a tall cylindrical crown with horns, the mark of divinity, a short tunic and an open cloak, and he carries a sword and two quivers on his back. A sun disc with rays hangs in the field beside him. The bull beneath his feet is his animal; its solid, patient stance contrasts with the god's stride. The relief is complete and the dark stone keeps its crisp edges.
The god is Adad, lord of storms and rain, whose thunder was the bellowing of a bull. His image on the bull with the double lightning fork was shared by Assyrians, Aramaeans and Hittites, and this stele stood in the temple of Ishtar at Arslan Tash, the Assyrian provincial residence at ancient Hadatu in northern Syria, built under Tiglath-pileser the Third in the mid eighth century before our era. It was found in the 1928 excavations led by François Thureau-Dangin and came to the Louvre through the partage of 1929.
Did You Know? Adad's thunder was thought to be the bellowing of the bull he stands on, which is why the animal is his mount.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.