170 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
are in the attitude of wrestling. In fig. 454a the dragon and the lion are in the 
fighting attitude, while Eabani lifts a standard surmounted by the crescent moon 
and the included sun. 
We should probably include here the cylinder shown in fig. 454c, for these are 
not vultures ready to devour the slain, but dragons with lion’s heads. It may be 
that the god is driving them away in answer to the appeal of their victim, as so 
often in the prayers and charms that have been preserved. There are two other 
divine figures, one the Gilgamesh with streams. In fig. 454 Ramman faces Shala 
as usual, and between them, under the head of Belit or Ninkharshag, we have 
the dragon devouring an ibex as in fig. 453. 
One is inclined to regard the dragon as one of the evil spirits of which the 
Babylonians were so much afraid and against which they composed so many 
charms. At the same time the mountain on which the victim kneels in fig. 453) 
and the lion which is associated with the dragon suggest that we may have here 
another representation of the storm-clouds dispersed by the Sun-god Nergal, for 
we know that Nergal was conceived of as a lion and figured with a lion’s head. 
But it would seem that he was also figured as a dragon and so he appears on the 
back of the remarkable funereal bronze tablet described by Clermont-Ganneau in 
his “L’Enfer Assyrien.” ‘The goddess of the lower world on the face of the tablet 
can be hardly anything other than Allatu, and the figure which covers the back 
side, with the head of a lion and the feet and legs of an eagle, as we see it in the 
representation of Tiamat, would seem to be her consort Nergal. Nergal is also 
closely related to Girra (Dibbara), who is a monster. We may then with some 
probability regard these scenes as showing us one of the phases of Nergal, who 
destroys the cloud enemy and who also rules and destroys in the lower world. 
