Ušumgallu

Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Primordial beings Abzu and Tiamat Lahmu and Lahamu Anshar and Kishar Mummu
Seven gods who decree Four primary Anu Enlil Enki Ninhursag Three sky gods Inanna/Ishtar Nanna/Sin Utu/Shamash
Other major gods Adad Dumuzid/Tammuz Enkimdu Ereshkigal Kingu Geshtinanna Lahar Marduk Nergal Ninurta
Minor gods Agasaya Anunnaki Asaruludu Ashnan Bel Enbilulu Geshtinanna Lahar Mami/Nintu Mamitu Nabu Namtar Nanshe Nidaba Ningal Ninkasi Ninlil Ninsun Nusku Sarpanit Uttu
Demigods and heroes Adapa Enkidu Enmerkar Gilgamesh Lugalbanda Shamhat Siduri Atra-Hasis
Spirits and monsters Utukku Lamassu/Shedu Asakku Edimmu Siris Anzû Humbaba Asag Hanbi Kur Lamashtu Pazuzu Rabisu
Tales Atra-Hasis Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta Enûma Eliš Epic of Gilgamesh
Other traditions
Arabian Levantine Near Eastern religions

Ušumgallu, inscribed: ú-šum-gal-lu,^[1] from Sumerian: ušum.gal, “dragon” and meaning "Great Dragon" or “prime venomous snake” according to Wiggermann,^[2] somewhat speculatively identified with the four-legged, winged dragon (Ušum) of the late 3rd millennium, was a lion-dragon demon whose name Winter translates as “predator.”^[3] It was one of three horned snakes in Akkadian mythology, with Bašmu and Mušmaḫḫū.

Mythology

Tiāmat is said to have “clothed the raging lion-dragons with fearsomeness” in the Epic of Creation, Enûma Eliš. The god Nabû was described as “he who tramples the lion-dragon” in the hymn to Nabû.^[4] 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.”^[5]

Aššur-nāṣir-apli II placed golden icons of ušumgallu at the pedestal of Ninurta.^[6] Its name became a royal and divine epithet, for example: ušumgal kališ parakkī, “unrivaled ruler of all the sanctuaries.”^[7] Marduk is called “the ušumgallu-dragon of the great heavens.”

References