CHAPTER LI. 
WINGED FIGURES IN SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 
In some Syro-Hittite cylinders the most characteristic mythological figures are 
winged. Indeed, it would seem as if it were from the Syro-Hittite province that 
wings were adopted in the Assyrian art, as they are not characteristic of the earlier 
Babylonian art. Both human figures and composite are often provided with wings. 
We have observed such a case in fig. g20. Fig. 945 would seem to give us a very 
early Hittite cylinder. The god stands on a bull and seems himself to be winged, 
as are the two bird-headed genii that attend him, carrying baskets and cones. In 
the field are a fish and a star, and the guilloche is above and below. In fig. 946 
two winged lion-headed figures kneel on each side of a branching column surmounted 
by a sun in a crescent. Here the column is a variation or development of the 
SACTeU strce mAllGeticatsvGn HG Ul Cota l CatOu (CCN ieee cers a 
pared with the winged monsters which in Assyr- 
ian art attended the sacred tree and the winged 
disk above it. We may presume that the attend- 
ant worshiper is adoring the sun and moon 
rather than the kneeling figures. In fig. 947 the 
winged figure seems to have the neck and head y//\ 
of a bird. A human figure, probably a wor- 7 
shiper and not a god, presents a goat held by : 
the neck, and there ?s a lion over a griffin and ie 
a rabbit. In fig. 948 two similar kneeling winged figures, with a bird’s head an 
neck, follow a female worshiper, who holds a peculiar and undetermined object 
before a god who is identical in appearance with the Babylonian Ramman-Martu. 
The headdress of the worshiper has an Egyptian style and she probably has the 
crux ansata in her hand. 
In fig. 949 the sacred tree 1s replaced by the Ionic column (the early Ionic is 
to be noticed, derived from a palm and not a lotus) and on each side is a winged 
figure with the upper part human and the lower part that of a lion. Above 
the column is the cross of the solar disk in the crescent, and on each side are a 
goat or ibex head and a rabbit. ‘There is a star, and the guilloche is between an 
ibex and a lion. In fig. 950 the bird-headed and winged protecting genius seems 
actually to hold the trunk of the sacred tree with his hands. Under him is a bull 
and opposite him is Marduk. Then we have the winged disk surmounting a column, 
with Eabani on one side holding it, and on the other a rampant dragon attacked 
by a kneeling figure with a spear; while under them is the guilloche. 
Sometimes the winged figure is entirely human. Such a case we have seen in 
fig. 873. Another such case we have in fig. $13, where the shent: worn by the wor- 
shiper, the staffs in the hands of the two figures, and the necks of the vultures above 
and below the guilloche indicate the strong Egyptian influence. 



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