In the sculptures[851] of these times there are associated with the goddess a number of divine attendants and priestesses, each holding as it seems a bent staff upon which she leans. These are not armed, but in them we may see the prototypes of a class of women devoted to the goddess, who in later centuries, on the decline of the Hittite power, at the coming maybe of the Phrygians, at first for the defence of their religion, and later separating in independent action, developed into armed priestesses, and possibly the Amazons of tradition.[852] But that was not yet; nor do we see in any of the shrines of the goddess of this age any sign or suggestion of the orgies and carnal festivals that a thousand years later were celebrated in her name. On the other hand, we see the cult at this age in its simplicity; in some cases the goddess worshipped alone, in others accompanied by the son-consort, whose position in legend and at Boghaz-Keui is secondary to her own. In the latter case, however, she is face to face with another god who is her equal. We have been able to trace in these sculptures to some extent the merging of this religion with the old conceptions, and now we pass to consider its union with the new. In this fourth phase the male predominates. The new divinity was a god omnipotent, with lightning in his hand. We call him Sandes, from a name surviving in Greek tradition in Cilicia and Lydia; but his real name is unknown. Possibly Tarku was one Hittite form of it; but at this period of his conspicuous individuality Baal or Zeus would suit him better. Like the goddess, he was well known in western Asia under various guises, the Tessub of Mitanni, the Hadad of Syria, the Rimmon of Babylonia. He came into Asia Minor, it seems to us, as guardian deity of the conquering Hatti, clad like their warriors; and in their wake came a limited number of kindred tribes, among whom also he was worshipped under various forms,[853] notably as a God of War with sword in hand.[854] By them he was transmitted as the national god to the other Hittite peoples, whose tutelary deities, however, seem to have been various.[855] In him, the embodiment of manly strength, the nature worshippers saw the sun, ruling in the skies,[856] supreme, a fitting husband for their Mother Earth. It was not hard to reconcile the cults. Just as the sun’s return in spring-time to shine upon the earth was necessary to revivify the dead year; so was the periodic union of the god with the goddess natural and appropriate, that the earth might bring forth her fruits in due season. The sculptures[857] illustrate the rite that arose upon this new ideal, where we see the statue of the god borne upon the shoulders of his priests to the open-air sanctuary of the goddess, and the divine nuptials celebrated with the dancing and revelry that have accompanied marriage festivals through all time.