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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

friend

www.metmuseum.org. Rogers Fund, 1939
Mesopotamia, 8th - 7th century B.C.  Standing all of 2.75 inches tall, this bronze figurine was most likely a votive offering to the goddess Gula.  Gula began as Bau, the goddess of dogs (how do you like that onomatopoeia?), but over time people noticed that when dogs licked your sores, they seemed to heal better.  New job for Bau:  Gula, deity of healing.  Someone long ago either needed some healing or was grateful for it, and brought this pleasant little gesture of a sculpture to a temple as a please or thank you.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting! I never knew any of this.

curator said...

I didn't either till pretty recently! BTW did you know the Metropolitan Museum of Art has an incredible trove of their publications available online? I got to do some excellent research that way.

parlance said...

That is gorgeous. For some reason it gives me hope for the human race, that the love of another species has reached across time to us.