THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 111 
The cases in which a personage is led by the hand to the seated god are not 
as frequent as those in which the chief or only worshiper is not led, and yet they are 
not rare. ‘They appear, in the best examples, to be of the Gudea period, although 
we have them earlier and later. There are seldom more than these two figures 
before the god. It is also to be observed that the cases are quite rare in which the 
worshiper carries a goat as offering; usually he simply lifts one hand while led by 
the other. Such a case we have in fig. 305. Here the god, whose beard seems lost 
in the abrasion of the head, carries the rod, or long, slender wedge, with the ring. 
Before him is the crouched figure like a monkey (lion?), and behind, under the 
inscription “Shamash, Aa,” is a lion or dog. 
Ny 
a le A\ Ls 
a rial ; Pa 
Vly : 
[nga : 
ee es ee ee Ne \ 

One of the more unusual cases in which there are other approaching figures 
following the worshiper led by the hand, and also in which a goat is being carried 
to a bearded god, is seen in fig. 307. This is a large, black serpentine cylinder of 
a period earlier than Gudea. Here the god is distinguished from his worshiper 
only by the flounced garment. His two-horned headdress is the same as that of 
the two first approaching figures. Behind them are two other figures, the first of 
which carries the sacrificial goat. He is bareheaded and lifts up a hand in rever- 
ence. He would seem to be a servant attending on the led figure, who probably 
represents the owner of the seal. The last tue oan Yeates Pace 2) in the procession may be feminine, 


307 
and corresponds to what appears to be the usually flounced goddess Aa, often seen 
with Shamash; but here her hands are not raised but held to her breast. Noticeable 
on this cylinder are the two weapons, one a dagger before the god, the other a battle- 
ax behind the led figure. The crescent is not unusual on the older cylinders and 
here it is seen in the older, very flat form, before the head of the god. 
A very neat little cylinder of the more usual type, that of the Gudea period, is 
shown in fig. 306. Here the goddess, like Aa, wife of Shamash, leads in the wor- 
shiper, who is shaved in the style frequent at that period. In the field above is 
the sun in the crescent, and below a bird, perhaps a goose, a bird much honored 
in Egypt and often seen on the cylinders, but in early Chaldean art more usually 
with the goddess Bau-Gula. 
