130 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
The devotion of Gudea to Ningishzida, and at the same time the relation of 
this god to the serpent, is shown in the vase dedicated by him to Ningishzida, of 
which the design is shown in fig. 368c. Here two serpents twine about a central 
column, and on each side is the monster seen in fig. 368a. It is thus again made 
clear that the god to whom the vase was dedicated was represented by serpents. 
There is one other representation of Ningishzida known in old Babylonian 
art (see Eduard Meyer, “Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,”’ plate vit), shown 
in fig. 368d. ‘This is a relief dated by the inscription on the garment of the wor- 
shiper led to the god, which reads, “ Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla.”” ‘The fragmentary 
condition of the monument allows us to see only the streams about the seated god; 
but the figure of Ningishzida, with the serpents from his shoulders, is admirably 
preserved. 
The idea of the serpents growing from the shoulders of the god has been per- 
petuated, it would seem, in the Persian myth of the wicked Zohak (fig. 368¢), who 
allowed Satan to kiss his shoulders, when a serpent grew out of each, and they 
had to be fed with human brains, two victims being killed each day. 
Such a cylinder as we see in fig. 3687, although it belongs to the Hittite period, 
gives rise to a question as to the meaning of the serpents from the shoulders. Here 
we see serpents apparently rising from the shoulders of the god, but it is only 
apparent, for the god grasps the serpents in his hands, which are joined over his 
breast, while their bodies fall down nearly to the ground. This suggests that it is 
possible that, just as streams flow from the shoulders of a god, although the thought 
is that they really flowed from a vase in the god’s lap, so it may be that by a sort 
of convention only the heads of the serpents were drawn, the hands being other- 
wise occupied in figs. 368a and d, while in fig. 368) the god winds the serpents 
about him. It is to be added that (Gudea, Cylinder A 5: 19, 20) Ningishzida is 
described as a solar deity: “The sun which lifted itself up from the earth before 
thee, is thy god Ningishzida. Like the sun he goes forth from the Earth.” 
The worship of the serpent is almost universal, whether as a good or an evil 
power. In Persia we have the serpent as typifying the hostile force which resists 
the good in Ahuramazda. In India there were the Nagas of Manu and the epic 
poems, who were identical with the serpent Ahi, etc., of the Rigveda. The Naga 
chiefs were represented with a canopy of hoods of cobras over their heads. Surya, 
the Hindu Sun-god, has a similar serpent canopy, and the Napa demigods hold a 
sun-disk in their hands, showing, apparently, a relation between sun-worship and 
serpent-worship, such as is indicated by the combination of the serpent body and 
the rays in fig. 367. In China we have dragon-worship in which the serpent has 
been developed into a fantastic monster. The Greeks knew a serpent Typhon; 
and there was a Phenician Esmun-Asklepios (Serpentarius). According to Phere- 
cydes the Phenicians had a serpent-god Ophion, the first ruler of heaven, but cast 
down to Tartarus by Kronos who prevailed over him in the beginning of things. 
The serpent is familiar in Egyptian mythology, whether as the god Urzeus, which 
adorned the heads of various gods, or as the evil Apep, the foe of Horus, Ra, and 
Osiris (Budge, “Gods of the Egyptians,” 1, p. 376). There was a seven-headed ser- 
pent and also a monstrous serpent of sunrise (zb., 1, pp. 20, 267). In the Egyptian 
Fund’s “ Defeneh,”’ plate 25, is figured a god with a serpent body, holding a ser- 
pent in each hand. We shall see in fig. 796 the serpent in Hittite worship; and the 
