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 fire god.  Great bonfires were lit to strengthen him, or as a ceremony of riddance; the old year was burned out.  Indeed the god himself might be burned (that is, the old god), so that he might renew his youth.  Melkarth was burned at Tyre.  Hercules burned himself on a mountain top, and his soul ascended to heaven as an eagle.

These fiery rites were evidently not unknown in Babylonia and Assyria.  When, according to Biblical narrative, Nebuchadnezzar “made an image of gold” which he set up “in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon”, he commanded:  “O people, nations, and languages... at the time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick... fall down and worship the golden image”.  Certain Jews who had been “set over the affairs of the province of Babylonia”, namely, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego”, refused to adore the idol.  They were punished by being thrown into “a burning fiery furnace”, which was heated “seven times more than it was wont to be heated”.  They came forth uninjured.[397]