Australiablog275

• Babylonian Lion
• Babylonian Lion British Museum

Did you scroll all this way to get facts about babylonian lion? Well you're in luck, because here they come. There are 135 babylonian lion for sale on Etsy, and they cost $48.20 on average. The most common babylonian lion material is metal. The most popular color? You guessed it: black. The Lion is the symbol of Babylon, and represents Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, love and war. Meant not only to symbolise Babylon, but to instill fear in enemies, it seems fitting that a single stone lion, albeit poorly preserved, is the only true remainder of Babylon that stands in Iraq today. The panel shows a pacing, roaring lion and once was part of King Nebuchadnezzar II’s throne room in his palace in the ancient city of Babylon. These roaring lions emphasized the power and might of the Babylonian king. Neo-Babylonian era, reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II, 605-562 BCE, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The British Museum).

Lion of Babylon is a stone sculpture that was found in the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq.

History[edit]

It was discovered in 1876 by a German archaeological mission.

The Lion of Babylon is over 2600 years old.^[1]

The statue was built by the Chaldean Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC).^[2]

The statue had been damaged over the years due to lack of protection, getting climbed on by tourists that left marks on the statue, or natural causes like erosion which Archaeologists had already feared was going to happen without the right protection of the statue.^[3]

In 2013 The World Monuments Fund worked with the Iraq State Board of Antiquities to make improvements to the site. The Lion was cleaned and partially restored, the base of the statue was replaced, and a security barrier was added.^[4]

Description[edit]

The statue is made out of black basalt black stone; it depicts a Mesopotamian lion standing above a laying human. The statue is two meters in length and the platform upon which it stands is one meter. The lion weighs about 7000kgs.

The statue height is 11.95 meters, and it is 2.6 meters long.^[5]

Symbolism[edit]

The Lion of Babylon is a historic theme in the region. The statue is considered among the most important symbols of Babylon in particular and Mesopotamian art in general.^[6] The statue is considered a national symbol of Iraq, it has been used by several Iraqi institutions such as the Iraqi Football Association.^[7]

The lion was meant to put fear into their enemies, by showing a lion trampling a man to scare their enemies.^[8]

It represented Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, love, and war.^[9]

On the back of the lion is a representation of where Ishtar should stand.^[10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Symbolism, MENA (2018-12-26). 'The Lion of Babylon'. MENA symbolism. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
2. ^Zeed, Adnan Abu (30 June 2016). 'Prized Lion of Babylon joins list of crumbling Iraqi antiquities'. Al-Monitor. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
3. ^'Ancient Iraq: Lion of Babylon - World Monuments Fund'. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
4. ^'Ancient Iraq: Lion of Babylon - Google Arts & Culture'. Google Cultural Institute. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
5. ^'Ancient Iraq: Lion of Babylon - World Monuments Fund'. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
6. ^'Babylon Chronicle, A 1932 photograph of the Lion of Babylon from the'. Tammuz.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
7. ^'الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم'. Ifa.iq. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
8. ^'Lion of Babylon [Detail]'. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
9. ^'Ancient Iraq: Lion of Babylon - World Monuments Fund'. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
10. ^'Babylon, Iraq'. www.atlastours.net. Retrieved 2020-04-30.

Babylonian Lion

The belief in demons and evil spirits predates Judeo-Christian theology. The ancient Babylonian and Assyrian cultures both had extensive demon classifications. This overview of Babylonian and Assyrian demonology explains the various classes of demons.

Virtually all cultures have believed in good and evil spirits at some point. The belief dates back to Babylonian and Assyrian religions, predating Judaism.

Babylonian Lion British Museum

There are generally 2 types of evil spirits:

1. Departed human spirits – Spirits of humans that died were thought to haunt the living. These spirits could be friendly or hostile, depending on the nature of their death or burial and whether they return to haunt friends or strangers. In some cases, a spirit of a friend or loved one could turn hostile after death. Or in some cases, they could be friendly at points and hostile at others – with no rhyme or reason to their actions.
2. Non-human spirits – Aside from departed human spirits that could turn hostile, many cultures believed in spirits that had never been human. Again, these could be friendly or hostile, and in many cultures, they took the form of animals like reptiles, serpents, antelopes, gazelles, anthropoids, crocodiles, lizards, hawks, and jackals. Apep, the serpent-devil of Egypt, and Hebrew beasts like Leviathan and Behemoth are examples.

Demons in Babylon and Assyria

The Babylonians and Assyrians borrowed had many names for spirits including utukku (‘spirit), Alu (‘demon’), Lilu (a ghost, the feminine versions include Lilitu and Ardat Lili), and Gallu (‘devil’). They believed that there were many evil spirits and they swarmed everywhere.

According to Morris Jastrow’s Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Download free at Project Gutenberg), these demons lurked in remote or hidden places like graves, mountain tops and in the shadows of ruins. They would go out at night, enter homes through holes and crevices, and torture their victims. They were responsible for anything bad that happened from destructive winds, pestilent fevers, and disease to headaches, petty quarrels, hatred and jealousy.

Classes of Demons

In Sumerian lore, there were three distinct types of demons:

1. disembodied human spirits who couldn’t rest
2. half human/half demon entities
3. demons that were of the same nature as the gods

Here are a few of the subclasses of demons.

• Utukku – Utukku was a spirit of a dead human (a ghost). Initially, Utukku was the term used to refer to the spirit of Eabani in the Epic of Gilgamesh who was raised up by the god Nergal at Gilgamesh’s request. Eventually, the term came to mean a class of demons who haunted deserted places and could cause injury to man.
• Alu – Alu is a translation of the Sumerian ‘Gallu’ which means ‘tempest.’ Alu were half humans and half animals that roamed the streets hiding in dark corners or deserted places. Alu was also the name of the celestial bull that Anu created to avenge his daughter Ishtar which Gilgamesh and Eabani eventually killed.
• Ekimmu – Ekimmu were departed spirits who wandered aimlessly over the earth, unable to find rest. They are able to leave the underworld to torment the living if a body has not been properly buried or relatives have not made the proper offerings.
• The Gallu – The Gallu was said to take the form of a bull and roamed the streets at night.
• Rabisu – The Rabisu is said to be so frighteningly hideous and hairy that it was associated with nightmares.
• Ilu Limnu (‘Evil God’) – Few details about this demon are known. He may have been related to Taiwaith (the primordial sea who gave birth to everything).
• Labartu – Labatu is the daughter of Anu. She has the head of a lion, the teeth of an ass, and is said to drink the blood and devour the flesh and bones of her victims.
• Lilu – There are three figures closely related in Babylonian mythology. Lilu is a male demon while Lilitu and Ardat Lili are females. Lilitu eventually became known as Lilith in Isaiah 34:14.
• Shedim – See my article on Shedim

Reference

• Langton, Edward, and Charles Ryder Smith. Essentials of Demonology: a Study of Jewish and Christian Doctrine, Its Origin and Development. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2014.