DEITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 135 
lent example of the seated deity with agricultural surroundings, but no plow, is 
seen in fig. 381. Here the deity, apparently male, holds in his hand a stalk of durra 
and a stalk of the same grain rises from each shoulder, while the first of the three 
approaching figures is enveloped in wheat. 
An admirable example of the goddess of agriculture is seen in fig. 382, on which 
two separate designs appear. The one to the right is considered in the chapter on 
the “God Attacking an Enemy” (fig. 1362). Here the goddess has two ears of 
wheat in her lifted right hand and a single ear in her left hand. The bearded 
attendant who introduces the worshiper carries an ear of wheat in his right hand 
and branches spring from his shoulders. He is followed by the long-bearded 
worshiper and by a beardless servant carrying a goat as an offering. It will be 
observed that the worshiper wears the same headdress as the goddess and the 
attendant male god or demigod. In fig. 383 the goddess, with a long tress behind, 



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sits on what looks like a hill. From her shoulders the branches look more like 
reeds than wheat, and she carries another in her hand. Four figures approach, of 
which the first and last seem to be feminine. 
For an excellent example of the plow in Assyrian times see Pinches, “Old 
Testament in the Light of Historical Records,’ p. 388. A plow very similar to 
that depicted on these cylinders is still in use in the East, and in Syria agriculturists 
have been known to object to part with one of these rude plows, out of jealousy 
lest they might be imitated by rival agriculturists elsewhere. Plows much like 
this are still in use in Western Europe, and perhaps no better modern illustration 
need be given than of those now employed by Spanish farmers, as in the accom- 
panying illustrations (figs. 384, 385). 
The goddess of agriculture seems to have been Gula, or Bau. She was “the 
Great Mother” from whom mankind received both the herds and the crops of the 
field (Sayce, “The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia,” p. 304; Jastrow, 
“Religion of Babylonia,” pp. 59, 462, 678) and she was herself designated as a 
heifer. But Bau became one of the forms of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, to 
whom the sixth month, the culmination of the summer season was devoted. To 
