Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 14 décembre 2017
Publié dans: Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, Pelican History of Art, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization, British 10th Army insignia, British Museum lamassu, British Museum - Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull from Nimrud, companion pieces in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fire temple in Fort Mumbai, Gate of All Nations at Persepolis in Iran, the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, the Metropolitan Museum of Artin New York and , Human Headed Winged Bulls and Reliefs from Khorsabad, Human Headed Winged Bulls, Sculpture and Reliefs from Khorsabad, Lamassu in Berlin, Lamassu in Persepolis, Metropolitan Museum of Art - Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull from Nimrud, companion pieces to those in the British Museum, Mosul Museum, Musée de Pergame, Berlin, Musée du Louvre - Human Headed Winged Bulls and Reliefs from Khorsabad, Mythology, Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago., Senza categoria, The British Museum - Human Headed Winged Lions and Reliefs from Nimrudwith the Gates of Balawat, University of Chicago Oriental Institute.. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

The Lamassu in Persepolis

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Uno dei Lamassu dal palazzo di Khorsabad del Louvre (713–707 a.C. ca.)

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Pair of lumasi from Sargon II‘s palace in Dur Sharrukin, modern Khorsabad (Louvre)

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Lamassu from Dur-Sharrukin. University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Gypsum (?) Neo-Assyrian Period, c. 721–705 BCE

 Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Lamassu from Dur-Sharrukin. University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Gypsum (?) Neo-Assyrian Period, c. 721–705 BCE

A lamassu, plural lumasi (Cuneiform: 𒀭𒆗, AN.KAL; Sumerian: dlammař; Akkadian: lamassu; sometimes called a lamassus[1][2]) is an Assyrianprotective deity, often depicted as having a human’s head, a body of a bull or a lion, and bird’s wings.[3] In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity.[4][5] A less frequently used name is shedu (Cuneiform: 𒀭𒆘, AN.KAL×BAD; Sumerian: dalad; Akkadian, šēdu; Hebrew: שד‎) which refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu.[6] The Lammasu or Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars or constellations.[7][8]

Large lamassu figures up to nearly 6 metres high are spectacular showpieces in Assyrian sculpture, where they are the largest figures known to have been made.

Iconography

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Pair of lumasi from Sargon II‘s palace in Dur Sharrukin, modern Khorsabad (Louvre)

In art, lumasi were depicted as hybrids, with bodies of either winged bulls or lions and heads of human males. The motif of a winged animal with a human head is common to the Near East, first recorded in Ebla around 3000 BCE. The first distinct lamassu motif appeared in Assyria during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser II as a symbol of power.[9][10]

Assyrian sculpture typically placed prominent pairs of lumasi at entrances in palaces, facing the street and also internal courtyards. They were represented as « double-aspect » figures on corners, in high relief. From the front they appear to stand, and from the side, walk, and in earlier versions have five legs, as is apparent when viewed obliquely. Lumasi do not generally appear as large figures in the low-relief schemes running round palace rooms, where winged geniefigures are common, but they sometimes appear within narrative reliefs, apparently protecting the Assyrians.[11]

The colossal entranceway figures were often followed by a hero grasping a wriggling lion, also colossal in scale and in high relief. In the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad, a group of at least seven lumasi and two such heroes with lions surrounded the entrance to the « throne room », « a concentration of figures which produced an overwhelming impression of power. »[12] They also appear on cylinder seals. Notable examples include those at the Gate of All Nations at Persepolis in Iran, the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, the Metropolitan Museum of Artin New York and the Oriental Institute, Chicago. Several examples left in situ in northern Iraq were destroyed in the 2010s by ISIS when they occupied the area, as were those in the Mosul Museum.

Terminology

The Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars, or constellations.[7][8] They are depicted as protective deities because they encompass all life within them. In the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh they are depicted as physical deities as well, which is where the Lammasu iconography originates, these deities could be microcosms of their microcosmic zodiac, parent-star, or constellation. Although « lamassu » had a different iconography and portrayal in Sumerian culture, the terms « lamassu », « alad », and ‘ »shedu » evolved throughout the Assyro-Akkadian culture from the Sumerian culture to denote the Assyrian-winged-man-bull symbol and statues during the Neo-Assyrian empire. Female lumasi were called « apsasû ».[3]

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

Five-legged Lamassu in Berlin, with lion’s feet

The motif of the Assyrian-winged-man-bull called Aladlammu and Lamassu interchangeably is not the lamassu or alad of Sumerian origin, which were depicted with different iconography.[clarification needed] These monumental statues were called aladlammû or lamassu which meant « protective spirit ».[3][clarification needed] In Hittite, the Sumerian form dLAMMA is used both as a name for the so-called « tutelary deity« , identified in certain later texts with Inara, and a title given to similar protective gods.[13]

Mythology

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

The Lamassu in Persepolis

The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a human head, bull‘s body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, and were placed as sentinels at entrances.[14] The Akkadians associated the god Papsukkal with a lamassu and the god Išum with shedu.

To protect houses, the lumasi were engraved in clay tablets, which were then buried under the door’s threshold. They were often placed as a pair at the entrance of palaces. At the entrance of cities, they were sculpted in colossal size, and placed as a pair, one at each side of the door of the city, that generally had doors in the surrounding wall, each one looking towards one of the cardinal points.

The ancient Jewish people were influenced by the iconography of Assyrian culture. The prophet Ezekielwrote about a fantastic being made up of aspects of a human being, a lion, an eagle and a bull. Later, in the early Christian period, the four Gospels were ascribed to each of these components. When it was depicted in art, this image was called the Tetramorph.

In modern culture

The British 10th Army, which operated in Iraq and Iran in 1942–1943, adopted the Lamassu as its insignia. A bearded man with a winged bull body appears on the logo of the United States Forces – Iraq.

A man with a bull’s body is found among the creatures that make up Aslan’s army in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. He appears at the Stone Table, challenging the White Witch « with a great bellowing voice ». In the film Alexander (2004), lumasi are seen at the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. In the Disney movie Aladdin (1992), a gold Lamassu can be found in the scene where Aladdin and Abu enter the cave in the desert to find the lamp.

A Northwestern University professor won a Fourth Plinth commission to recreate the Lamassu that stood in Nineveh, Iraq, from 700 BC until it was destroyed by ISIS in 2015, Michael Rakowitz’s sculpture will be displayed in London’s Trafalgar Square beginning in 2018.[15]

Games

Lammasu [sic] and shedu are two distinct types of good-aligned creatures in the role-playing gameDungeons & Dragons. Lammasu also appear in the Magic: The Gathering trading card game as the white card Hunted Lammasu[16] in the Ravnica: City of Guilds expansion, as well as the white cardVenerable Lammasu[17] found in the Khans of Tarkir expansion.

In the Games Workshop miniatures wargame, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Lamasu was a mount for the Chaos Dwarf army. It has since returned as part of the Storm of Magic expansion release. A Lammasu briefly appears in the Fablehaven series.

Gallery

Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

 

    •  Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

  • Modern impression of Achaemenid cylinder seal, 5th century BCE. A winged solar disc legitimises the Persian king who subdues two rampant Mesopotamian lamassu figures

    Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

  • British 10th Army insignia

    Giacobbe Giusti, LAMASSU

  • The entrance of a Fire temple in Fort Mumbai displaying a Lamassu

See also

 
 Assyrian Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu), Smarthistory[18]

Notes

  1. Jump up^ Kriwaczek, Paul. Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization, p. 37.
  2. Jump up^ http://www.torrossa.it/resources/an/2401509#page=241
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Livius.org
  4. Jump up^ Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. The Pantheon of Uruk during the Neo-Babylonian Period. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  5. Jump up^ « The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary ». Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  6. Jump up^ Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (2003). An Illustrated dictionary, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. The British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-1705-6.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b Hewitt, J.F. History and Chronology of the Myth-Making Age. p. 85.
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b W. King, Leonard. Enuma Elish Vol 1 & 2: The Seven Tablets of Creation; The Babylonian and Assyrian Legends Concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind. p. 78.
  9. Jump up^ « History – Mesopotamia ». BBC.
  10. Jump up^ « Lamassu ». ancientneaeast.net.
  11. Jump up^ Frankfort, 147–148
  12. Jump up^ Frankfort, 147–148, 148 quoted
  13. Jump up^ Gregory McMahon, The Hittite State Cult of the Tutelary Deities. Oriental Institute Assyriological Studies, no. 25
  14. Jump up^ Castor, Marie-José. « Winged human-headed bull ». Louvre.fr. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  15. Jump up^ « The Lamassu, Resurrected ».
  16. Jump up^ « Hunted Lammasu ».
  17. Jump up^ « Venerable Lammasu ».
  18. Jump up^ « Assyrian Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu) ». Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved January 8, 2013.

References

  • Frankfort, Henri, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, Pelican History of Art, 4th ed 1970, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), ISBN 0140561072

External links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamassu

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com