204 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
The most famous and one of the best examples of this scene is that shown in 
the cylinder of the Armenian king Urzana, given in fig. 589. Here the four-winged 
god grasps two ostriches, arranged in bilateral symmetry. As each hand seizes an 
ostrich it is not possible for him to carry his scimetar. The inscription reads: 
Seal of Urzana, King of the City of Muzazir, the capital city, which is fortified (?) with wshu 
stone, which is built high up on dangerous mountains in full view.— Price. 
This king met Sargon in battle 714 B. C. The history of this cylinder, one of 
the earliest to reach European scholars, is given in Chapter 11. It is now in the 
Museum of The Hague. The inscription is not reversed on the seal. 
In fig. 590, which appears to be later, or at least less carefully engraved, the 
god, still four-winged, seizes the two ostriches by the neck. Under the winged 
emblem of Ashur is a star, and under that the conical column with its two streamers, 
which probably still symbolizes Marduk notwithstanding the added streamers. 
By it is what may be a vase, and we find also a fish and a rhomb. A yet coarser 
example, wholly cut with the wheel, is shown in fig. 591. The right-hand column 

is again the emblem of Marduk, and the other may perhaps represent Nebo, under 
an unusual form. In an equally rude cylinder, but cut in a soft stone with the free 
hand, is fig. 592, where the kneeling god seizes the ostrich by the neck and holds 
the scimitar in his other hand. Among other examples may be mentioned fig. 593, 
in which the god seems to carry a stone as weapon, as well as his own scimitar. 
Similarly in fig. 594 the god carries three weapons, a scimitar, a stone, and a bow. 
In fig. 595 the god stands with one foot on an ibex, and in the field we observe a 
star, a crescent, and a low plant. In this connection, for the sake of the ostrich, 
we may consider fig. 597, although it is quite doubtful whether it represents a god 
or a mere hunting scene. ‘The attitude, which is very fine, is quite unlike the 
formal Assyrian work, but we have remnants of Assyrian writing. ‘The strong 
and hairy hunter, quite nude, attacks a lion, while before it is a deer and behind 
it an ostrich. 
There are a few examples of cylinders in which evidently the same god Marduk 
has a fight not with a single ostrich, nor even with two symmetric ostriches, but 
with three very strong and vicious birds, a sort of Stymphalides. Such an example 
is in fig. 596. The design is about the same in the several cases: in each the god 
seizes one bird by the neck, another by the leg, while a third on its back on the 
