disk, like Ashur, grasping a ring in one hand, the other being lifted
up as if blessing those who adore him.

Shamash, the Babylonian sun god; Ishtar, the goddess of heaven; and
other Babylonian deities carried rings as the Egyptian gods carried
the ankh, the symbol of life. Shamash was also depicted sitting on his
throne in a pillar-supported pavilion, in front of which is a sun
wheel. The spokes of the wheel are formed by a star symbol and
threefold rippling "water rays".

In Hittite inscriptions there are interesting winged emblems; "the
central portion" of one "seems to be composed of two crescents
underneath a disk (which is also divided like a crescent). Above the
emblem there appear the symbol of sanctity (the divided oval) and the
hieroglyph which Professor Sayce interprets as the name of the god
Sandes." In another instance "the centre of the winged emblem may be
seen to be a rosette, with a curious spreading object below. Above,
two dots follow the name of Sandes, and a human arm bent 'in
adoration' is by the side...." Professor Garstang is here dealing with
sacred places "on rocky points or hilltops, bearing out the suggestion
of the sculptures near Boghaz-Keui[393], in which there may be
reasonably suspected the surviving traces of mountain cults, or cults
of mountain deities, underlying the newer religious symbolism". Who
the deity is it is impossible to say, but "he was identified at some
time or other with Sandes".[394] It would appear, too, that the god
may have been "called by a name which was that used also by the
priest". Perhaps the priest king was believed to be an incarnation of
the deity.

Sandes or Sandan was identical with Sandon of Tarsus, "the prototype
of Attis",[395] who links with the Babylonian Tammuz. Sandon's animal
symbol was the lion, and he carried the "double axe" symbol of the god
of fertility and thunder. As Professor Frazer has shown in _The Golden
Bough_, he links with Hercules and Melkarth.[396]

All the younger gods, who displaced the elder gods as one year
displaces another, were deities of fertility, battle, lightning, fire,
and the sun; it is possible, therefore, that Ashur was like Merodach,
son of Ea, god of the deep, a form of Tammuz in origin. His spirit was
in the solar wheel which revolved at times of seasonal change. In
Scotland it was believed that on the morning of May Day (Beltaine) the
rising sun revolved three times. The younger god was a spring sun god
and