Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/372

 cross likewise in a ring, a three-horned cap, an symbol like two horns.

A third Egyptian cross is that represented Fig. 16, which apparently is intended for a Latin cross rising out of a heart, like the mediæval emblem of “Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde:” it is the hieroglyph of goodness.

The handled cross was certainly a sacred symbo among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly on their cylinders, bricks, and gems.

On a cylinder in the Paris Cabinet of Antiquities, published by Münter, are four figures, the first winged, the second armed with what seems to be thunderbolts. Beside him is the crux ansata, with a hawk sitting on the oval handle. The other figures are a woman and a child. This cross is half the height of the deity.

Another cylinder in the same Cabinet represents three personages. Between two with tiaras is the same symbol. A third in the same collection bears the same three principal figures as the first. The winged deity holds a spear; the central god