338 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
the entire design is reversed and duplicated; a winged god seizes two sphinxes, 
and a bull’s head is in the field. 
Perhaps more usual is the “dragon,” a modification of Tiamat, with a lion’s body, 
an eagle’s hind legs and talons, and a bull’s horns. Such a case is given in fig. 1122. 
An almost identical design is shown in Lajard’s Mithra, plate x1x, fig. 7. In fig. 1123 
the “dragons” are rather grifins and the winged disk rests over the crowned hero. 




1119 

Quite frequently the absolute symmetry is varied, against the older practice, 
by having the two animals, on the two sides, different. In fig. 1124 there is an ibex 
on one side and a lion-bodied sphinx on the other. In fig. 1125 a bull-bodied 
sphinx is balanced by a “dragon” and there is an Aramean inscription which 
reads: “ Parshandat, ‘son of Artadatan™ (Levy, Phon. Stud, 1 p. 40; ¢. his 
“Siegel und Gemmen,”’ 1, p. 18). Levy is wrong in following de Vogiié in supposing 
the last letter is part of the griffin’s tail. In fig. 1126 a lion is balanced by an ibex 
and there is a cock over a tree. We have a somewhat different combination in fig. 
1127, where one hero in Persian dress attacks a lion 
and another in a short garment fights a bull. 
We have observed that where the hero fights a single 
foe his weapon is the short sword or dagger; but he may 
also use the bow, as does the king in fig. 1104. We have 
such a case in fig. 1128, where the hero has slain one lion 
_. and aims his arrow at another, while a dog is before him. 
my ~ In fig. 1129 he attacks with his bow a lion which was 
about to seize an 1bex. The contest in fig. 1130 can hardly be called a hunting 
scene, for there are two rampant ibexes, at one of which the hunter, not in the 
usual Persian costume, hurls his spear. Above are the sun (which has not yet 
quite lost its water-streams), the crescent, and the star, while we see a pecyliar 
tree, characteristic of Persian cylinders, but perhaps not found on those of earlier 
date. It has a thickened trunk and a round mass of irregular branches, and appears 
to grow on a mountain. We have seen other examples of this tree, particularly 
in hunting scenes and also in fig. 676. 
The design may be made more decorative by including a large circular crescent 
between the god and the lion. Such is the case in fig. 1131. Here the archer, who 


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