EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 405 
emblem; indeed this emblem has been taken for a lyre. Whether the emblem of 
this goddess appears in the later Greek letter omega is to be considered. The 
Egyptians seem to have identified their Hathor with an Asianic goddess whom they 
called by the Syrian name of Kedesh, if we may judge from her figure (fig. 775) 
which wears precisely the same coiffure. ‘That she corresponds with the later form 
of Zirbanit appears from such cases as fig. 211. 
Examples of this emblem on cylinders are not numerous, although it occasion- 
ally occurs. It will be seen in fig. 722, where the worshiper before a burning altar 
wears the emblem of his god on his wrist. It is seldom omitted on the kudurrus. 
But that this represents the coiffure about the face of the goddess appears 
in a few seals of a rather late period after the ingress of Egyptian influence. 
Examples are seen in figs. 432, 452, 843. In fig. 462 we have the face drawn within 
the coiffure of tresses, over the “thirty” of Sin, which is over a figure of Zirbanit. 
We have also Adad on his bull, Shamash, if Shamash it be, with his foot on a human- 
headed bull, the goddess Aa, a worshiper with a goat, and as many other minor 
objects as can be crowded in; a vase (without its “libra’’), the sun in its crescent, 
an ape over a dancing figure, and a tortoise. Another 
such case we have in fig. 1305c, a cylinder of the Syro- 
Hittite type, in which the face within the tresses is dis- 
tinctly drawn, the remaining design including two 
sphinxes under the winged disk, a star, a hare, and an / \ 
ibex head, and also an elaborate braided rope pattern. SRE IT ae 
The Knife has already been mentioned as associated with the coiffure of Belit- 
Ninkharshag, and when it appears alone it may be regarded as also her emblem. 

19. Siru, the Serpent: ‘This identification 
needs no argument. The serpent is usually a 
most conspicuous object on the kudurrus, and 
occasionally its name appears in the accompany- 
ing text, as in fig. 1284, where it is the sixteenth 
in the list. It is, however, more often omitted in 
the accompanying lists, as if hardly a recognized a 
deity. It must have been, however, more than 
local, as it is omitted from few of the kudurrus. 
It was of enough importance, at any rate, to reach the rank of a constellation. 

ERR 
q 


20. Iskhara, the Scorpion: ‘The evidence that the scorpion 1s Iskhara is drawn 
from an astrological omen tablet. In Thompson, “Reports of the Magicians” (11, 
p. 76), we read: “Anu (D. P. mul) Akrabt (D. P. ilu) Iskhara 
ina la’ab urrisha,”’ etc., “when in the flaming light of Scorpio Iskhara,”’ 
etc. Here Scorpio and Iskhara are identified. See also Jensen (“ Kos- 
mologie,” pp. 72, 73) for “(Mul) Girtab-Iskhara tamtim,” where Gir- 
tab, Sumerian for Akrabu, scorpion, is equated with Iskhara, a goddess 
resembling Venus. ‘The scorpion is frequently depicted on the stones 
and Iskhara is frequently mentioned. She is a goddess of the Kassite 
pantheon of whom very little is known. She is related to Ishtar and is called “God- 
dess of the Holy Mound,” that is, of the sea (Sayce, “Religions of Ancient Egypt 
and Babylonia,” p. 374). 

