Endnote 10 – Portraits of Ancient Israelite Kings?

The king and crown prince appear again in the eastern entrance to the Tripylon. Under a baldachin the king sits on his throne borne by the peoples of the empire, holding lotus blossom and staff. The crown prince also holds a lotus blossom. The faces of both royal figures are mutilated, and the king’s lotus was erased in an act of propagandistic iconoclasm. The mutilators were fully conscious of the lotus’s significance. It must have signified the continuity of the ruling house.