These circular seals must be regarded not only as characteristic of Hittite art, but also as a product of Hittite invention. We meet with nothing resembling them in Babylonia or Assyria.
The gems can be traced across the Ægean to the shores of Greece. Among the objects discovered by Dr. Schliemann at Mykenæ were two rings of gold, on the chatons of which designs are engraved in what we may now recognise as the Hittite style of art. On one of them are two rows of animals' heads; on the other an elaborate picture, which reminds us of the elaborate designs on the gems of Asia Minor. It represents a woman under a tree, facing two other persons, who wear the upturned boots and flounced dress that we find in Hittite sculptures, while the background is filled in with the heads of animals.
These gems are not the only indication the ruins of Mykenæ have afforded that Hittite influence was spread beyond the coasts of Asia Minor. Allusion has already been made to the figures of the Hittite goddess and the doves that rested on the pinnacles of her temple; another figure in thin gold gives us a likeness of the Hittite goddess seated on the cliff of Sipylos, as she appeared before rain and tempest had changed her into 'the weeping Niobê.' Perhaps, however, the most striking illustration of the westward migration of Hittite influence, is to be found in the famous lions which stand fronting each other, carved on stone, above the great gate of the ancient Peloponnesian city. The lions of Mykenæ have long been known as the oldest piece of sculpture in Europe, but the art which inspired it was of Hittite origin. A similar bas-relief has been discovered at Kümbet, in Phrygia, in the near vicinity of Hittite monuments; and we have just seen that the heraldic position in which the lions are represented was a peculiar feature of Hittite art.
Greek tradition affirmed that the rulers of Mykenæ had come from Lydia, bringing with them the civilisation and the treasures of Asia Minor. The tradition has been confirmed by modern research. While certain elements belonging to the prehistoric culture of Greece, as revealed at Mykenæ and elsewhere, were derived from Egypt and Phoenicia, there are others which point to Asia Minor as their source. And the culture of Asia Minor was Hittite. Mr. Gladstone, therefore, may be right in seeing the Hittites in the Keteians of Homer--that Homer who told of the legendary glories of Mykenæ and the Lydian dynasty which held it in possession. Even the buckle, with the help of which the prehistoric Greek fastened his cloak, has been shown by a German scholar to imply an arrangement of the dress such as we see represented on the Hittite monument of Ibreez.
