374 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
of Gilgamesh (fig. 648). Other forms of the Water-god, of a later period, are seen 
in b end c. With this we may compare the goddess with outstretched arms from 
which streams fall, while a vase before her pours down a flood of water, as seen in 
No. 2, b. It is possible that this does not represent the god of waters Ea, but 
Shamash arising from the eastern ocean and 
its gates. With that view the design would 
have a different geographical origin from that 
which represents him rising from the moun- 
tains. ‘The deity with a complication of spout- 
ing vases begins to appear very nearly at the ; 
time of Gudea, but is not frequently found. 2 b ¢ 
He is not to be confounded with the seated Shamash with a single spouting vase 
held in his lap, No. 8; but he is almost certainly the same as the later Assyrian 
or Babylonian Water-god seen in No. 52 and Chapter xxxvu. With him is to be 
expected the man-fish and the goat-fish. 

8. The Seated God with Rays or Streams: This is an alternative form of the 
Sun-god, which may well have originated at a different seat of worship. Thus we 
know that Sippara and Senkereh were each a seat of the worship of Shamash. 
He was regarded as the giver both of light and rain; so that both rays and streams 
with fish are associated with him, just as rays and streams are found alternating on 
his disk symbol. Usually it is this god with streams to whom the culprit bird-man 
is brought. (See No. 27.) ‘The usual seated Shamash, with the approaching wor- 


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a b c d e 
shipers, so many examples of which appear on the cylinders in the middle period, 
have neither streams nor rays and come under the next head in this chapter. 
Very frequent with this and the preceding form of the standing Shamash is the 
inscription: “Shamash, Aa,” and Aa is frequently with him alone, or following 
the worshipers. For fuller account see Chapter x1v. Eduard Meyer, in his 
“Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,” p. 45, says that streams (or serpents) 
from the shoulders are a sign of divinity. I think that in careful engraving the 
streams come from the vase in the lap. 
g. The Seated Bearded God: This 1s, artistically, an undifferentiated deity. 
He is usually to be recognized as Shamash, or presumed to be that god, as Shamash 
was the most popular of all the gods. In he carries the rod and ring (“tablet of 
destiny ?”’) which we know belong to Shamash. But there are occasions when 
the figure seems to represent Sin, as in fig. 30, where it is to be presumed that the 
tutelary deity of Ur is represented, and at this early period the presence of the 
moon may be intended to identify him. Equally if he is accompanied by three 
dots, for Thirty, it is probably Sin. Similarly in the art of Tello he is likely to be 
