THE HAMtLTON ASSOCIATION. 39 



" eagle, afterwards adopted by the Seljukian sultans, and carried by 

 " the crusaders to the German States. This Hittite art is the source 

 "of the peculiar art of Asia Minor, which forms a well marked 

 "element in that of primitive Greece." In the cylinders, sculptures 

 and seals found in Asia Minor and in the islands of the Archipelago ; 

 in the raised silver boss characters and in the gold rings designed 

 after ancient Babylonian models, we have proofs of the skilled hand 

 of the Hittite artist. 



Before concluding, I wish to state in a few words what is 

 known of Hittite religion. And here again the Hittites take their 

 first lessons in Babylonia, and, having made some progress, they 

 communicate what they have received from Babylonia, and modified, 

 to the west. The gods of Babylonia appear on Hittite soil with new 

 names, retaining their old faces and forms. Even the legends, forms 

 of worship, and images are imported, almost without a change. In 

 the Amazon of the Greek, we have the reproduction of the Hittite 

 priestess. Prof. Sayce notices a very peculiar and interesting fact in 

 this connection — that the cities founded by Amazons— Ephesos, 

 Smyrna, Kyme, Myrina, Priene, Pitane — were all of Hittite origin. 

 In early art the Amazons are robed in Hittite costume and armed 

 with the double-headed axe, and the dances they performed with 

 shield and bow in honor of the goddess of war and love, gave rise to 

 the myths which saw in them a nation of warriors. The debasing 

 rites of the Babylonish religion were introduced into the Hittite 

 system, and mutilation and torture were practised to please the cruel 

 Attys. Istar and Set were their chief gods. Set, whom they called king 

 of heaven and earth, appears to be the ancient god of Egypt of 

 the same name. Conder says that the Egyptians regarded Set as 

 the great god of night, at once the brother and foe of Horus ; that 

 Set assuming the form of a boar swallowed the eye of the god of 

 day. The priestesses ministering at the Hittite altars were mere 

 ritualists, and religion was in their case, as it too often is, divorced 

 from morality. At Kadesh, Hittite girls were devoted to wickedness, 

 and that in the name of the Hittite religion. Many were the forms 

 of worship, and most of them repulsive in the extreme. " Devotees 

 " surrendered their children to Baal in the flames, and the children's 

 "screams were drowned by trumpet and drum; and the rites of 



