CHAPTER LXIV. 
THE GREEK INFLUENCE. 
Very rarely we meet with a cylinder which seems to show the influence of 
Greek art. ‘These are so few that they can be considered only independently, and 
as little more than abnormal, however graceful, variations from the true Oriental 
types. The Greeks had no use for cylinders. But Greek art penetrated into the 
East before the cylinders had disappeared and may even have become a fresh and 
important influence in distant lands, where the cylinder was lingering after it had 
ceased to prevail in its original homes. There are cylinders that are said to have 
been found in Greece itself, but these are not at all Greek in feeling, and may have 
been brought by visitors, or in trade, or even by a Persian invasion of soldiers. 
One cylinder which shows Greek influence has been noted in fig. 1054. There 
the vigorous attitude and especially the flowing garments are evidence of a Greek in- 
fluence, although the language of the inscription is Aramaic. It probably belongs to 
a period of Persian control in a country where the art had become in good part Greek. 




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We can hardly fail to see a similar Greek influence in fig. 1213. Here the 
broken seal shows us a god apparently seated on two bulls, with both hands raised, 
also two winged harpies and a worshiper. ‘This cylinder retains the gold looped 
wire which held it. Another which we may safely take to show Greek feeling is 
seen in fig. 1214. It gives us two cupids, one reclining on a lounge and one with 
trident riding on a fish. A very beautiful and exquisite agate cylinder is shown 
in fig. 1215. This cylinder is mounted in gold, and the rich mounting appears on 
the drawing, which shows the single figure on the cylinder. It is attached as the 
central pendant to a gold chain, and I was told that it was found in Afghanistan. 
A half-draped female figure, presumably a goddess, caresses the head of a heron. 
Probably we must include, as showing Greek influence, the cylinder given in 
fig. 1216, for its style is entirely unlike anything Oriental. A man-fish, with two 
Egyptian ostrich feathers on his head, lifts a standard ending in a heart-shaped 
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