CHAPTER V. 
ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES, 
Another of the more frequent designs of this archaic type, often accompany- 
ing the eagle of Lagash, is that of two seated deities facing each other (sometimes 
only one deity). The simplest form is seen in fig. 77, which gives us only the two 
deities and two worshipers. Other examples from the Berlin Museum are figs. 
78, 79. The latter cylinder is of lapis-lazuli, and we observe the shape of the vase 
held in the hand of the deity. Unfortunately, no such careful study of Babylonian 
pottery has yet been made as of that from Egypt, and we get from it little indica- 
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tion of antiquity. Usually we see either a vase ee the two deities, from which 
they seem to be drinking through a tube, or they are accompanied by a gate, 
which is at times winged. An illustration of the winged gate (also a second gate not 
winged) is seen in fig. 80. The deities are, like the human figures which may 
accompany them, always beardless, so that it is impossible to tell whether the 
seated figures, which it is safe to call deities, are male or female—very probably a god 
and a goddess. The significance of the winged gate is very difficult to determine. 





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In the designs which represent the standing Shamash (Chapter x11!) rising over the 
mountains the accompanying gates are certainly the gates of the morning, and it 
may be that these are the same. We shall also see the winged gates in the designs 
which show us a crouched bull before or under the gate (Chapter xvi1), where again 
the symbolism of the gates is obscure. We are reminded of “the wings of the morn- 
ing,” Ps. 139: 9. But usually the gate is not winged. 
In fig. 82 the eagle seizes two ibexes in the lower register, one of which is also 
attacked in front by a human figure, while in the upper register the gate is between 
the backs of the two seated deities, between whom stands a figure in the attitude 
36 
