Page:The Hittites - the Story of a Forgotten Empire.djvu/117

Rh in the history of the world, and we can often infer the religion of a people from its art, as in the case of the sculptures of Boghaz Keui. Hittite art was a modification of that of Babylonia, and bears testimony to the same Babylonian influence as the worship of the 'Mother-goddess.' The same Chaldæan culture is presupposed by both.

But while the art of the Hittites was essentially Babylonian in origin, it was profoundly modified in the hands of the Hittite artists. The deities, indeed, were made to ride on the backs of animals, as upon Babylonian cylinders, the walls of the palaces were adorned with long rows of bas-reliefs, as in Chaldæa and Assyria, and there was the same tendency to arrange animals face to face in heraldic style; but nevertheless the workmanship and the details introduced into it were purely native. Even a symbol like the winged solar disk assumes in Hittite sculpture a special character which can never be mistaken. The Hittite artist excelled in the representation of animal forms, but the lion, which he seems to have never wearied of designing, is treated in a peculiar way which marks it sharply off from the sculptured lions either of Babylonia or of any other country. So, too, in the case of the human figure, though the general conception has been derived from Babylonian art, the conception is worked out in a new and original manner. Those who have once seen the sculptured image of a Hittite warrior or a Hittite god, can never confuse it with the artistic productions of another race. The figure is clearly drawn from the daily experience of the sculptor's own life. The dress with its peaked shoes, the thick rounded form, the strange protrusive profile, were copied from the costume