Babylonian/Sumerian/Hittite/Assyrian mythological creatures

[ngilop]

Hey guys,

So I have been playing a lot of Age of Mythology lately. I can beat a moderate AI about 65% of the time, but hard wreck me like 90%...

And I am thinking of, just idea tossing here, what a Mesopotamian civilization would have as myth units?

I was thinking giving them technologies that make siege weapons better and more powerful blacksmithing tech. Due to that region getting iron smelting and siege vehicles first.


But I cannot think of any more than a handful of mythological, well unique mythological creatures.

All I can think of are as follows
Djinn
Efreet
Lamia
Lamashtu/Shedu
Bashmu
and the winged bull that I am forgetting the name of :(

also I think there is some kind of fish-man but I could be getting that mixed up with another region's mythology.

[Eldan]

I'm trying to remember if Dominions had a mesopotamian civilization. I don't think it had. It did have a sort of Caananite/Old Testamentish-one.

There's a few Persian monsters that might go back that far.

Anzu is a giant bird. Or a half-bird, half-man demon. Or a creature like a griffin. Anyway, it's big and it breathes both fire and water. It's also a creature of great wisdom.

I also like the Simurgh. You might know it as the Senmurv, one of the most creatively silly illustrated monsters in D&D history, where it's a rainbow coloured, winged wolf standing on its hind legs. She (always she) is a colourful peacock-like bird strong enough to carry off elefants, though she also has some mammalian characteristics, like breasts and teeth, sometimes. Or the head of a dog. She's again very wise and benevolent and older than this world and all the worlds before it. She also nests in the world tree and is responsible for shaking the seeds of all other plants out of its leaves.

What else, what else... ghouls and manticores also come from that area of the world.

[Knaight]

I'm trying to remember if Dominions had a mesopotamian civilization. I don't think it had. It did have a sort of Caananite/Old Testamentish-one.

Berytos is pretty mesopotamian (kind of Phoenician in particular), as is Ur.

[Cespenar]

I remember the Persona series having a crapton of mythological creatures (including Mesopotamian, as I recall) as "Persona" (basically Pokemon :smalltongue:), so you can easily find a list on the internet and give it a skim.

[Eldan]

Berytos is pretty mesopotamian (kind of Phoenician in particular), as is Ur.

Derp. Ur. The obvious one. Thanks.

[Aotrs Commander]

Rabisu? (Akkadian myth.)

It's one I cribbed myself a while back. It's got a fairly vague description (so plenty of room work with).

On top of their whole abush-predator thing, I recall, but I can't for the unlife of me find the site I looked at and not mentioned in all the other things that came up on a google search, was the implication it had some sort of telekinesis

[Closet_Skeleton]

Most mesopotamian daemons are only known from name lists in exorcism manuals so there's no description available. A lot of the mythological beasts also have no description.

Scorpion men are pretty common in Babylonian texts. In art they just look like men with scorpion tails but sometimes they have wings and lion feet.

Mushushu (mistransliterated as Sirrush in older scholarship which show up in the Epic Handbook) are the Babylonian dragons, they have a snake's head with ram's horns, bird feet on the hind limbs and lion paws on the forelimbs. The name means splendour serpent.

Huwawa/Humbaba is a giant with a face that looks like intestines. He's basically the Mesopotamian Gorgon in that both usually appear post-beheading and are used as a protective symbol. He's also probably related to the Egyptian god Bes.


All I can think of are as follows
Djinn
Efreet
Lamia
Lamashtu/Shedu
Bashmu
and the winged bull that I am forgetting the name of :(

also I think there is some kind of fish-man but I could be getting that mixed up with another region's mythology.

Djinn and Efreet are Arabian, Lamia is Greek but may be derived from Lamashtu.

Lamashtu is not the same thing as a Shedu. Lamashtu is a female daemon with a lion's head and donkey ears and is similar to the latter Jewish lilith/lilim. Her rival is Pazuzu who has four wings, a scorpion's tail and a bestial head and is also often priapic.

The Winged Bull with a man's head is a Shedu so you had that one. Also called Kirubu (cognate with Hebrew Cherub) or Lamassu (which you will have confused with Lamashtu. Lamassu usually come in pairs of Lion and Bull variants.

The fish man is Uanna (Oannes in Greek), but he's a sage/protective spirit wearing a cloak not a monster. There are also bird-sages who have wings and an eagle head and often come in paired groups with the fish-sages. All of them are called Apkallu (Akadian) which comes from Abgal in Sumerian and just means Sage but the Sumerian version are human looking. Sometimes they're called Watchers rather than Sages.



Anzu is a giant bird. Or a half-bird, half-man demon. Or a creature like a griffin. Anyway, it's big and it breathes both fire and water. It's also a creature of great wisdom.


I also like the Simurgh.


Anzu/Imdugud is a lion headed eagle. Simurgh is Persian/Armenian.