Page Content (OCR)
241 Figure 82 ii Sy ‘= FQ cs Figure 83 that Ishtar will be at his side when he marches against his enemy. The vision of Ishtar armed and as a warlike goddess emitting rays has been recorded in various ancient depictions (Fig. 82). The annals of Ashurbanipal, who claimed that among his great knowledge was the ability to interpret dreams, are re- plete with references to oracles—probably through dreams, though this is not specified—given him by this or that of the "great gods, my lords" in connection with his military campaigns. His interest in dreams and their interpretation led him also to have state archives examined for records of past oracle dreams. Thus we learn that an archivist by the name of Marduk-shum-usur reported to Ashurbanipal that his grandfather Sennacherib had a dream in which the god Ashur (Fig. 83), Assyria's national god, appeared to him and said, "O wise one, king, king of kings: You are the offspring of Royal Dreams, Fateful Oracles