CHAPTER XVI. 
THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 
We have seen in Chapter xv the seated Shamash with the bird-man led to him 
for judgment. We have also seen the seated Shamash with rays or streams, or 
both, in Chapter x1v; and also the seated Shamash on the Abu-habba bas-relief 
(fig. 310), as also on the Hammurabi stele (fig. 1271). We now come to consider 
another series of representations of a seated god, usually not to be distinguished by 
any accessories or emblems from the Shamash of the Abu-habba figure, but, like 
that, without streams or rays. That this design, which appears in the older art, 
and continues through the Middle Empire, always represented Shamash is not at 
all clear. Indeed, there is reason to regard him as sometimes Sin, or sometimes 
Ningirsu, or some other important divinity of the male sex. ‘The reason is clear. 
The Babylonian art was extremely limited in its types of the human figure. The 
figure of the seated male god was always the same. It was a dignified figure, in a 
long garment, usually flounced, with a horned turban, either two-horned or many- 

horned (braided), and with a long beard and one hand lifted, perhaps holding a 
vase, or a rod and ring. The varieties of attitude in the standing god were more, 
but still very restricted. We can by no means be sure when we see a seated god 
that it is Shamash, although the presumption is strong that it is this god favored 
more than any other in worship. 
Further, the approach of one or more worshipers to a god is the most natural 
and frequent of designs. Usually there is more than one approaching figure. Such 
is the case in fig. 301, a cylinder included here as showing a transition form. 
There are no streams about the god, but there are two fishes in front of him. The 
naked worshiper carries a goat, while the female servant with the pail is clothed. 
Usually this condition of clothing is reversed. ‘The simplest form of this design is 
seen when the single worshiper stands before the god, either with or without a goat 
carried in his arms as a sacrifice. An example of this is seen in fig. 302. This is 
an early, black serpentine cylinder, concave, and shows us a bearded god in a 
flounced garment, in a two-horned cap, holding a beaker in his hand. Between him 
and the worshiper is a perfectly plain altar, and behind the worshiper is a palm-tree 
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