“[In the ninth century BC] appear winged genies . . . with human heads or sometimes the heads of birds of prey, whose task was to attract positive forces. Indeed, they hold in one hand a situla and in the other an object like a pinecone, with which they seem to sprinkle anyone who comes near them. . . . [A]s on the panels behind Ashurnasirpal II’s throne at Nimrud, these figures also appear in composite scenes: twice behind the king, who is also depicted twice, once on each side of the Tree of Life, which itself is surmounted by a winged disc representing the great god Assur or the sun god Shamash.”

—The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia, by Giovanni Curatol, Jean-Daniel Forest, Nathalie Gallois, Carlo Lippolis, and Roberta Venco Ricciardi, 2007.