CHAPTER XLVI. 
SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE LOWER WORLD. 
Several elaborate cylinders seem beyond reasonable doubt to present to us 
scenes in the underworld. There is very little in the Babylonian art that we can 
definitely connect with the underworld. We have one such scene in the conquest 
of Allat by Nergal, described in Chapter xxi. But the Egyptian influence with 
its predominant mythology of the future life must have profoundly influenced all 
the region that submitted to its rule in the middle of the second chiliad B. C., how- 
ever much the native mythology may have modified the Egyptian ideas. 
An earlier discussion of these cylinders will be found in my article, “ Hittite 
Gods in Hittite Art,’ “American Journal of Archzxology,” 1899, pp. 1-39. The 
first of them to be considered is shown in fig. 854. In the upper register is a seated 
deity, bearded, flounced, holding in his hand what looks like a branch, but which 
may be meant for a spouting vase, from which or about 
which flow two streams. Before him stands an attend- 
ant having two faces, like Janus Bifrons, one directed 
aeexoei forward to the deity and the other backward to the 
—=—-—| figure which follows. This, as explained correctly by 
Ménant, is a mere conventional device to indicate that 
this attendant, whom we may call the psychopomp, 
keeps watch on the following figure while reverent 
towards the deity. Accordingly, one hand is lifted towards the god and the other 
is extended towards the figure behind him. ‘This bifrons figure is borrowed from 
the earlier Babylonian art, where it occasionally appears, as in figs. 291, 294, 297. 
Behind the psychopomp is a figure, apparently a soul of the dead brought to the 
deity for judgment. He stands in an attitude of profound respect and is followed 
by five figures, of which the three first might be apparitors attending or guarding 
the soul, or assessors assisting the god who sits in judgment. The character of 
these three attendants is better seen in figs. 855, 857, where their headdresses are 
better preserved. The fifth figure behind the bifrons is not definitely characterized. 
The sixth, and last, is the usual form of a goddess consort, whether of Shamash or 
Adad. She might well be the wife of the seated god. ‘The lower register gives us 
another scene in the lower world. ‘The same soul whom we have seen presented 
for judgment in the upper register here stands to the right of a palm-tree, and four 
composite creatures approach, one kneeling and the others presenting food. The 
two registers are separated by an elaborate Hittite guilloche. 
The next cylinder (fig. 855), also of hematite, is said to have come from Aidin 
in Lydia and belongs to the Louvre. This is not a pierced cylinder of the ordinary 
style, but of the shape somewhat affected among the Hittites, in which one end is 
reduced and extended to form a handle, which is pierced transversely (fig. 8552). 
In this case the handle is partly broken off. The other end has the Hittite inscription 
(fig. 8555). It has the same elaborate guilloche as in fig. 854 and another of spirals. 
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