The mouse’s Horus-related symbolism does not in itself invalidate the idea that disease ravaged Sennacherib’s forces. Thus Lloyd, despite everything, still says that “some such disease as typhoid or cholera would be the most probable explanation” for the Assyrians’ departure.16Yurco, too, says that “the probable outbreak of pestilence” was at least partly responsible for the withdrawal. 17 Nonetheless, their respective analyses of the mouse/ disease symbolism weaken the case for this theory.
