L'Assiria dopo l'Assiria / Assyria after Assyria

The memory of Assyria, after the fall of the great Mesopotamian civilizations, has been handed down by the Bible and by Greek authors. In the former, it is the instrument of the Lord's punishment against his own people and becomes a symbol of pride and arrogance. The Greek historians, subsequently, created the image of an East dominated by despotism and magic as opposed to the democratic and rational West. Characters as Semiramide and Sardanapalo, partly historical and partly mythical, are the symbols of this view, which remained unchanged until Romanticism. The taste for sublime and exoticism, much loved in the XIX century, well suited to these characters. The archaeological discovery of Assyria, that occurred shortly after, amazed everyone and was fully covered by all kind of press. New the new material data mingle with the centuries old traditions. Since the mid-nineteenth century faithful copies of the relieves discovered in the Assyrian Palaces appeared in theatre productions; on stage even furniture and costumes echo those of Assyrian art. A trend that reached its apogee with the Sardanapal produced on request of Kaiser Wilhelm II at the beginning of the twentieth century. From the theater, this trend quickly passes to the newborn cinema, even if Assyria's fortune on the big screen occurred towards the middle of the century, at the time when peplum movies went mainstream. Accurate references to Assyrian culture and art are found everywhere, from trading cards to novels, and in more recent times, from comics to video games.