CHAPTER L. 
SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE GODDESS WITH ROBE WITHDRAWN. 
In the Syro-Hittite pantheon one or more naked goddesses are much in evidence. 
It may not be easy to decide certainly whether the various forms belong to a single 
goddess, but they seem to be much allied. . e 
One of these forms is that of the goddess who exposes her nudity by lifting 
her garment on each side. It is seen in fig. 912. The goddess, standing between 
two symmetrical figures of a principal Hittite god, might almost equally be con- 
ceived as holding a skipping-rope or a garland; but we may suppose that she lifts 
up the tassels which weight the garment in front. Neither explanation is quite 
satisfactory. Whether we call it a garland or the edge of her garment, we must 
account for the dotted line which extends each side of the middle of her body, as if 
passing behind it. Above her are the star, the crescent, and the winged disk. Under 
two griffins are a guilloche and four marching figures. These marching figures, 
two or four, are frequent in the Hittite seals, almost as characteristic as the guilloche. 

ee 
—— Ui ff . 
5 a > 

Sometimes, as in fig. 913, this goddess stands over the bull led by Teshub. The 
god stands on two mountains, suggesting that he is the god of storms. He holds 
in one hand a club and in the other two serpents by the neck. Two marching 
figures are over a guilloche, and under that is a lion. There are also a star, the 
sun in a crescent, a bird, a minute rabbit’s head, and over the serpents’ heads 
a flower like a thistle. This cylinder is especially valuable as indicating that 
what has often been called a lituus held in the hand of a king is really a serpent. 
Another case, in which the goddess stands on a bull, is shown in fig. O14. 
This cylinder I am assured came from the Hauran. A worshiper kneels before the 
bull. ‘Iwo other human figures face each other, one perhaps a god; and between 
them is the sun in a crescent, over a monkey. The other objects are a star, a 
thomb, a hare, and a bird. Another is fig. 915. Here the goddess on the bull 
(or cow) is protected by an arch like a rope-pattern or guilloche. Before her 
stands the high-hatted god with a crook, and the remaining space is in two 
registers, of which the upper represents two deities, presumably male and female, 
seated before a table piled with what we may call cakes or “shewbread.” The 
lower register has the four figures in procession. This cylinder is particularly inter- 
esting for the arch, with a sort of wings, over the goddess, which connects it with 
another form of the goddess which we shall consider later (fig. 930). Another is given 
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