dwollsadventures:Nope, you read that correctly. This is Mušmaḫḫū, not his more popular older brother

dwollsadventures:Nope, you read that correctly. This is Mušmaḫḫū, not his more popular older brother Mušḫuššu. Both of them are what authors call “snake dragons”, which is a bit misleading as there are also “horned snakes” that are dragons as well. “Snake Dragon” in this case refers to the fact that they’re both quadrupeds with a snake-like head and tail. His name literally translates to “exalted serpent”, implying his type were above the common class of serpents. Both Angim and the Enuma Eliš give several key features to it, namely its seven mouths and the venom coursing through its veins in the place of blood. Which nicely correlates it to the seven-headed serpent, a dragon slain by Ninurta. Unrelated (probably) to the seven-headed nāga of India. In the most famous depiction of the serpent, it has its characteristic seven heads, the body of a leopard, and many waving lines on its back. Like all of its relatives, once it was slain mušmaḫḫū was turned into a symbol of power, a monster who attacked evildoers at its master’s behest. In Mesopotamian religion, all beings, even the monsters and demons, are objects of the gods’ will. As a dragon, musmahhu is very typical. A lone god going out to slay a dragon is found across the world, a recurring theme called “chaoskampf”. Unlike many of those other serpents musmahhu has no connection to the waters, Ninurta encounters him on land. This may suggest he predates the Indo-European chaoskamp, as Sumerian existed long before the Hittites made their way into Mesopotamia. His presence does show another theme however, this time unique to the Near East. Musmahhu, when he pops up, is always marked as having something of seven. Seven heads or seven tongues or seven screaming mouths. In the Near East seven occurs many times in relation to dragons. The Canaanite Lotan was referred to as “the mighty one with seven heads”, just the same as musmahhu. Both may draw on some common source. But there is another many-headed dragon in that area, one which is unique in its homeland: the hydra. Could the Greeks have been influenced by Lotan and Musmahhu? As we get into the dragons, the information sections will be a lot less meaty than they’ve been. Demons like this, without any human aspect to them, don’t have any function within the religion except as monsters to be slain. I had a bit of trouble coming up with the color for him, I don’t want that yellow-y orange to be too present in this series. It just happened to be the best to go with this orange-y gold color. Initially his seven heads did show up, but with the quills (which is what I interpret the things on his back to be) they cluttered the image too much. The first time I drew him he was less impressive than the exalted serpent deserved. Features like the quills, the keratinous tail, and the odd scales on the head should keep it looking more monstrous. Though all the demons are chimeras, I’d hate for them to just look like various animals stapled to each other. Next time, wouldn’t Musmahhu look a bit better with some bits on his head? -- source link

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