128 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
logie, V, p. 135; 7b., V1, p. 95.) It was from the impression of the cylinder on a 
tablet in the Louvre, the inscription on the cylinder reading, “Gudea, patesi of 
Shirpurla,” or Tello, that he recognized the god on it as Ningishzida (fig. 3682). 
The god sits on his throne, and holds one vase before his breast, from which two 
streams rise and fall, and a second vase in his other hand. Before him stands his 
intermediary god, who with one hand supports one vase and with the other leads 
the worshiper, very probably Gudea himself, with his shaven head. ‘The streams 
from the vases fall into three vases on the ground, each of which in turn spouts out 
two more streams, so that there are ten jets in all. There are serpents rising from 
the shoulders of the intermediary god, who is recognized as Ningishzida (see 
Chapter Lxvill, sub voce). We may with some assurance regard the seated god as Ea, 
although in the previous figure he was standing. We would, however, have expected 
Gudea to be worshiping Ningirsu. But we have found in the case of Shamash that 

a god might be figured in either way, sitting or standing. For a discussion of this 
cylinder in its relation to Ea see the description of it in connection with fig. 650. 
But it is the intermediary god with whom we are now concerned. From each of his 
shoulders there rises a serpent. He is the god who introduces Gudea to his chief 
patron deity, Ningirsu or Ea, although Gudea was also greatly devoted to Nin- 
gishzida. In his great inscription he says—(Cylinder A, col. xvii1, 14-17), describ- 
ing his approach to his supreme god Ningirsu in his temple: “The god Lugal- 
Kurdub went before him; the god Gal-alim followed him; Ningishzida, his god, 
held him by the hand.” It is thus that Gudea is here led by the hand, for, as this 
seal is personally Gudea’s, according to the inscription, and not that of a scribe, 
we may, with Heuzey, properly presume that the worshiper is Gudea himself. 
Ningishzida is then, as Heuzey shows, the god, more than once called “his god,” 
who introduces him to the principal god, who would naturally be Ningirsu, but who 
appears, from his attribute of water, to be Ea. It is fitting that the serpent god 
Ningishzida should be followed by the winged serpent-headed monster. 
This design already shown is from its impression on a tablet; but a single 
cylinder is known, from the great collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New 
