AI – ‘Ancient art uses metaphor as a sophisticated visual language to convey subliminal, ideological messages about civilization, primarily by mediating authority, enforcing social order, and defining cultural identity through symbolic imagery. These visual metaphors allowed ancient societies to present complex, often propaganda-driven, ideas about power and stability to, at times, largely illiterate populations, transforming abstract concepts like “divine right” or “order over chaos” into readily understood, albeit hidden, narratives. 

1. Animal Metaphors for Power and Domination
Ancient Near Eastern art frequently employed animals to symbolize the strength and authority of rulers. 

• The King as Lion/Bull: Neo-Assyrian kings, for example, were depicted as lions or bulls to convey ferocity, power, and the capacity to dominate, with kings often shown in combat with these animals to signify their mastery over raw, chaotic nature.
• The Lamassu: The human-headed winged bulls (Lamassu) that guarded palace entrances were complex metaphors, blending human intelligence (head) with animal strength (body/wings), signifying that the civilization was divinely protected, intelligent, and invincible. 

2. Visualizing Order Over Chaos
A core message of many ancient civilizations was that they represented order, while outsiders or nature represented chaos. 

• Pharaohs Defeating Enemies: In Egyptian art, the Pharaoh is consistently depicted hitting enemies with a mace or riding a chariot over them. This is a metaphorical message of Ma’at (cosmic order) maintaining control over the chaos of foreign lands and societal discord.
• Geometric Precision: The use of rigid, geometric, and idealized forms in sculpture and architecture served as a metaphor for a disciplined society, contrasting with the presumed “disorder” of nature or “barbarian” cultures. 

3. Architectural and Cosmic Metaphors
Art and architecture were merged to create a “visual theology” that reinforced the social hierarchy. 

• The City as Cosmos: In the ancient Near East and Rome, the city and its temple were designed as a metaphor for the universe. The temple acted as a “cornerstone” or center of the world, positioning the local culture at the pinnacle of creation.
• Divine Right: Rulers were depicted with symbols connecting them to deities (such as the Egyptian Ankh for eternal life, or divine crowns), acting as a silent, continuous, and subconscious claim that the state’s political order was mandated by the gods. 

4. Metaphors of Cultural Identity

• Mythological Narratives: Greek art used scenes from mythology (like the Battle of Centaurs) to metaphorically portray the triumph of Greek rationality and civilization over foreign (“barbarian”) barbarism and primitive urges.
• Material Culture as Value: The selection of materials – gold, bronze, or rare stones—functioned as metaphors for the wealth, and therefore the superiority, of the civilization, with the durability of the art implying the intended eternal nature of the state. 

These metaphors functioned not just as artistic decoration, but as crucial tools for consolidating power by making elite ideologies appear natural, divine, and unshakeable.’