ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 235 
falls a bunch of fruit. This may be regarded as a libation, but the plant must have 
a sacred character. We have much the same scene from a somewhat later period in 
figs. 1235, 1240, where it seems impossible to regard this as the flame of oil on an 
altar, as the plant is so fully drawn like the frond of a palm, with fruit like a bunch 
of dates in one case hanging below it, and in the other real fronds. And these three 
bas-reliefs compel me to question my earlier view and ask if such scenes as in figs. 
31, 32, 421 may not represent a plant of life rather than libations of oil rising 
in flame and falling down on the side of the altar. We have here, then, the artistic 
anticipation of the tree of life so fully developed in Assyrian art, just as the Assyrian 
artists developed the scene of the conflict of Marduk and the Dragon. 
Indefinite and uncertain as these literary references are, and while the early 
Babylonian art leaves much to desire as to their ideas of the tree of life, we seem to 
find it, or a later development of it, in the Iranian literature. For a reference to 
these passages I am indebted to Prof. A. V. W. Jackson of Columbia University. 
The Gaokena is thus described by Justi in his “‘ Handbuch der Zendsprache”: 
A plant of the white haoma. It grows by the tree Harvicptokhma, in the sea Voumkasha, and 
is employed for the forming of immortal bodies at the time of the Resurrection. Ahriman created for its 
destruction a great lizard, but it could not reach its root, inasmuch as 99,999 fravashis [guardian angels] 
and the fish dara (or ten fishes, in the Bundehesh) kept it away. 
’ 
These two trees are also treated by Windischmann, “Zoroastrische Studien,’ 
pp. 165, ff.: “Paradies: die zwei Baume; die vier F'liisse.”’ 
It is instructive to gather here the passages which describe these two trees, 
for their relation both to the Assyrian tree of life and to the two trees of the Genesis 
story of Eden. 
They are as follows: 
The tree of the eagle [the griffin Saena, or Simurgh] that stands in the middle of the sea Vouru- 
kasha, that is called the tree of good remedies, the tree of powerful remedies, the tree of all remedies, and 
on which rest the seeds of all plants. (‘«* Sacred Books of the East,’’ mm, tr. Darmestetter, Avesta, Yasht 
Xi, a1 70) 
ihe waters@ a, a. run back again from the Puitika to the sea Vouru-kasha towards the well- 
watered tree, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind by hundreds, by thousands, by hun- 
dreds of thousands. (/4., Vend-fargard v, 19.) 
From that same germ of plants the tree of all germs [or all seeds] was given forth, and grew up in 
the wide-formed ocean, from which the germs of all species of plants increased. And near to that tree of 
all germs the Gokart tree was produced, for keeping away deformed decrepitude, and the full perfection of 
the world arose therefrom. (J4., Bundahesh Lx, 5,6; tr. West.) 
I Ahura-mazda brought down the healing plants that by many hundreds, by many thousands, by 
many myriads, grow up all around the one Gaokerena [the white haoma, which grows up in the midst of 
the sea Vouru-kasha. The other is the yellow earthly haoma]. (J4., Fargard xx, 4; tr. Darmestetter). 
We worship the powerful Gaokerena made by Mazda. (Yasht 1, 30.) 
On the nature of the tree they call Gokart it says in revelation, that it was the first day when the 
tree they call Gokart grew up in the deep mud within the wide-formed ocean; and it is necessary, for 
they prepare its immortality therefrom. The evil spirit has formed therein, among those that enter as 
opponents, a lizard as an opponent in that deep water, so that it may-injure the Hom. And for keeping 
away that lizard Ahura-mazda has created those ten kar-fish, which at all times continually circle around 
the Hom, so that the head of one of the fish is continually towards the lizard. And together with the 
lizard those fish are spiritually fed, that is, no food is necessary for them, and till the renovation of the 
universe they remain in contention. .... The tree of many seeds has grown amid the wide-formed 
ocean, and in its seed are all plants; some say it is the proper-curing, some the energetic-curing, some the 
all-curing. (J4., Bundahesh xvi, 19; tr. West.) 
