Ušumgallu

Ušumgallu or Ushumgallu^[2] (Sumerian: 𒁔 𒃲ušum.gal, "Great Dragon")^[5] was one of the three horned snakes in Akkadian mythology, along with the Bašmu and Mušmaḫḫū. Usually described as a lion-dragon demon,^[1] it has been somewhat speculatively identified with the four-legged, winged dragon of the late 3rd millennium BCE.

Mythology

Tiamat is said to have "clothed the raging lion-dragon with fearsomeness" in the Epic of Creation, Enuma Elish. The god Nabû was described as "he who tramples the lion-dragon" in the hymn to Nabû.^[6] The late neo-Assyrian text "Myth of the Seven Sages" recalls: "The fourth (of the seven apkallu's, "sages", is) Lu-Nanna, (only) two-thirds Apkallu, who drove the ušumgallu-dragon from É-ninkarnunna, the temple of Ištar of Šulgi."^[7]

Aššur-nāṣir-apli II placed golden icons of ušumgallu at the pedestal of Ninurta.^[8] Its name became a royal and divine epithet, for example: ušumgal kališ parakkī, "unrivaled ruler of all the sanctuaries".^[9] Marduk is called "the ušumgallu-dragon of the great heavens".

In the god list An = Anum Ušumgal is listed as the sukkal (vizier) of Ninkilim.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b ušumgallu, CAD U/W, pp. 330–331.
^ Syllablized as Ú-šum-gal-lu.^[1]
^ F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992). Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts. Styx Publications. p. 167. ISBN 978-9072371522.
^ Irene Winter (2009). On Art in the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E, Volume 1. Brill. pp. 28–29.
^ Wiggermann instead proposes "prime venomous snake”.^[3] Winter translated it as "predator".^[4]
^ KAR 104, 29.
^ E. Reiner (1961). "The Etiological Myth of the "Seven Sages"". Orientalia (30): 1–11.
^ A. Leo Oppenheim (2011). "Assyrian and Babylonian Historical Texts: The Banquet of Ashurnasirpal II". In James Bennett Pritchard (ed.). The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton University Press. p. 253.
^ Kyle Greenwood (2011). "A Shuilla: Marduk 2". In Alan Lenzi (ed.). Reading Akkadian prayers and hymns : an introduction. SBL. pp. 317, 323.
^ R. L. Litke, A Reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian God-lists, AN:^dA-nu-um and AN:Anu Ŝá Amēli, 1998, p. 172

[cad-1] ušumgallu, CAD U/W, pp. 330–331.

[2] Syllablized as Ú-šum-gal-lu.^[1]

[3] F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992). Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts. Styx Publications. p. 167. ISBN 978-9072371522.

[4] Irene Winter (2009). On Art in the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E, Volume 1. Brill. pp. 28–29.

[5] Wiggermann instead proposes "prime venomous snake”.^[3] Winter translated it as "predator".^[4]

[6] KAR 104, 29.

[7] E. Reiner (1961). "The Etiological Myth of the "Seven Sages"". Orientalia (30): 1–11.

[8] A. Leo Oppenheim (2011). "Assyrian and Babylonian Historical Texts: The Banquet of Ashurnasirpal II". In James Bennett Pritchard (ed.). The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton University Press. p. 253.

[9] Kyle Greenwood (2011). "A Shuilla: Marduk 2". In Alan Lenzi (ed.). Reading Akkadian prayers and hymns : an introduction. SBL. pp. 317, 323.

[10] R. L. Litke, A Reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian God-lists, AN:^dA-nu-um and AN:Anu Ŝá Amēli, 1998, p. 172

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Ušumgallu

Mythology

See also

References

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