Talk:Lamassu

moved gallery

British Museum Collection

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  The British Museum - Human Headed Winged Lions and Reliefs from Nimrud with the Gates of Balawat
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  The British Museum - Human Headed Winged Bulls from Khorsabad
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  The British Museum - Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull from Nimrud, companion pieces in Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  The British Museum - Assyrian Sculpture, notice the colossal Lion Lamassu

Musée du Louvre Collection

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  Musée du Louvre - Human Headed Winged Bulls from Khorsabad, otherwise known as Lamassu's
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  Musée du Louvre - Human Headed Winged Bulls, Sculpture and Reliefs from Khorsabad, note the Lamassu in the foreground is a cast from the Oriental Institute, Chicago
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  Musée du Louvre - Human Headed Winged Bulls and Reliefs from Khorsabad
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  Musée du Louvre - Human Headed Winged Bulls and Reliefs from Khorsabad

Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection

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  The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull from Nimrud, companion pieces in the British Museum

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Collection

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I have an image of the reverse

Here is an image of the reverse of the Lamassu in Chicago, but I wasn't sure where it should be in the article.

reverse of Lamassu

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Movie or Book

Does the Lamassu--or bearded, man-faced lion--appear in the book, the movie, or both?

probably neither :p — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.248.36.14 (talk) 17:13, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Nonsensical description

"The lamassu is a celestial being from Mesopotamian mythology. Human above the waist and a bull below the waist, it also has the horns and the ears of a bull. "

Human "above the waist" ? None of the statues depicted are remotely consistent with the description "human above the waist". Compare to a typical centaur, which has a human neck, and human arms, and a human chest and torso down to the waist. The bull statues have none of those human features, except the actual head.Tallewang (talk) 18:06, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Clarification

I came to this article for information about the roots of the Judeo-Christian idea of cherubim. This article just lead to further confusion, which I have noted. After some digging, I found an external article which was much more helpful. I'm not sure how to improve this article without a complete rewrite. So, the following is what I found verbatim.

"“Shidu Lamassu” ... This is how the name appears in Assyrian records, the origin of the word "Lamassu" is from the Sumerian (Lammu), the name was used for a female jinn whose duty was to protect cities, palaces and houses of worship, but the male jinn protector was known in Sumerian as (Alad-Lammu ) while in the ancient Assyrian (Akkadian) language it was known as “Shidu” [1] – [2] and the words “shida” or shidda” are still used in modern Assyrian language also meaning ”jinn”, the word “shidana” is derived from ancient Assyrian beliefs meaning “those touched by jinn” and of this term, the Arabic word “majnoun” was derived also in reference to the word “jinn”.

"Many people fall into emotional errors which at face value seem naïve and told by simple people, but they stem from previous political or religious ideologies aiming at distorting history by saying that the ancient Assyrians worshipped "the winged bull", however, Assyrian records simply refute that. According to the Assyrian Archaeology Professor John Russell, the winged bull was mentioned in the records of the Assyrian King Sennacherib as follows: "I brought prisoners of war from the cities which I invaded, they built me a palace and at its gates stood two of the Alad-Lammu” ... [3] Thus, the accusation of “worshipping the winged bull" is void because it is not possible for a god to stand guard at the gate of his slave’s palace.

"Many also believe that Lamassu is Nebuchadnezzar (605 - 562 B.C.) [4] Whom God according to – the Torah superstition - had turned to a bull with eagle’s claws (Daniel 4: 31-34) and they ascribe the winged bull to Nebuchadnezzar, even though the Lamassu is far more ancient than Nebuchadnezzar’s grandparents.

"Lamassu is a form of mythical creature with mixed composition, it is more often a winged bull with a man’s head and a lion's paws (photo No. 1), or with a man’s head and a bull’s feet (photo No. 2) – Lamassu took several forms during the different periods of history, even in Assyria (Ashur), it took at times the form of a non-winged lion with a human’s hands dedicated for protection during a bath (the ancient Assyrian beliefs say that sprinkling or stirring hot water attracts the "Pazzuzu" [5] (photo No. 3) or the evil spirit), and women to this day spontaneously continue to use the word “kish” to expel evil spirits whenever they sprinkle or stir hot water, this winged lion is called in Assyrian "Ormalolo”, a plate with an Ormalolo was found in the bathing area of King Ashur Bani - Apli (Banipal) dating back to 640 B.C. (photo No. 4).

"Lamassu is a force that combines the four elements of perfection (the lion for courage, the bull for strength, the eagle for glory and the human for wisdom), it is an idea derived from the people’s beliefs of extraordinary care, the idea spread to various civilizations, thus Ezekiel who was captive in Assyria speaks in the Torah superstition of a chariot above the river Khabor, with a human’s head, calf’s feet, a lion’s body and faces looking in all directions …(Ezekiel, 1: 1-14)"--173.30.103.80 (talk) 01:40, 11 May 2014 (UTC)