[917] See antea, p. 99, n. 1.
[918] See W. Hayes Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (Washington, 1910), p. 217, figs. 658, 659, 660, 661.
[919] Ward, op. cit., p. 214, in fig. 249, gives apparent confirmation.
[920] In noting the attributes ascribed to various gods, we are confronted by the problem as to what suggested to the Babylonian his precise differentiation in their characters. These betray their origin: they are the personification of natural forces: in other words, the gods and many of the stories told of them are the only explanation the Babylonian could give, after centuries of observation, of the forces and changes in the natural world. In company with other primitive peoples he explained them as the work of beings very similar but superior to himself. See King, Babylonian Religion (London, 1889). This inevitable tendency of anthropomorphism was tersely expressed by Xenophanes of Colophon (frag. 15):—
“If oxen, horses, lions had but hands To paint withal or carve, as men can do, Then horses like to horses, kine to kine, Had painted shapes of gods and made their bodies Such as the frame that they themselves possessed.”
[921] For the Nimroud sculpture, see Monuments of Nineveh, op. cit., 2nd Series, Plate 6, while for the agate cylinder, see Nineveh and Babylon (London, 1853), p. 343, where in a note Layard writes, “It is remarkable that on this cylinder the all-seeing eye takes the place of the winged human figure and the globe in the emblem above the sacred tree.”
[922] For the data and authorities available in 1855 and examination into Oannes and Dagon, see J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, III., pp. 500, 501, 503.
[923] Nineveh and Babylon, op. cit., pp. 343, 350. See also Le Mythe de Dagon, by Ménant; Revue de l’Hist. des Religions (Paris, 1885), vol. II. p. 295 ff., where a great variety of Assyrian fish-men may be found. Forlong (op. cit., I. 231) instances a cornelian cylinder in the Ouseley collection depicting Oannes or the Babylonian god or demi-god, attended by two gods of fecundity, on whom the Sun-god with a fish tail looks down benignantly. Forlong’s obsession detects in every representation, Indian or Irish, Assyrian or Australasian, some emblem of fecundity, while his ever-present “King Charles’s head” is some phallic symbol. We are almost reminded of the witty quatrain current some years back:
“Diodorus Siculus Made himself ridiculous By insisting that thimbles Were all phallic symbols!”
[924] The goat-fish god dates as far back as Gudea, c. 2700 b.c. He was like the man-fish or fish-god, a symbol of Ea, the god of water, and probably derives from Capricorn. See Ward, p. 214, fig. 649; and p. 249, figs. 745, 747.