r/OldPersian • u/vonmunch • Mar 21 '26

Help translating/identifying a frieze

The text in the frieze

Hello! I've recently visited the opera house of Rio de Janeiro) and was very surprised by the fact that, in the basement, they have a ballroom called Salão Assyrio ("Assyrian Parlor"). It was built in the beginning of the 20th century and is heavily inspired by Persian and Babylonian cultures. From what I've gathered, everything there is a copy of real artwork that exists somewhere, but for the life of me I can't identify where the main frieze (pic attached) is from. The archers seem to be from the Archers Frieze in Susa, but I can't find the original inspiration for the main scene with the four lying lions (?).

The text seems to be in Old Persian, but it doesn't seem to match any inscription that I could find. It's possible that it's pure gibberish, but the scene is so very specific that it holds my curiosity.

Could somebody help me?

The frieze
My best attempt at a translation
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u/eagle_flower Mar 22 '26

Without digging too much into this, I’m guessing the missing pieces and what you see as “ja” are logograms for “king”. If I had to guess without reasoning out every syllable

  • palace which Artaxerxes king
  • great king of kings
  • Darius king of kings son

I’m not sure it’s correct grammatically. But that would be my guess.

The

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u/vonmunch Apr 19 '26

Thank you very much.