#basmu

Sumerian Mythology - The earliest deities of ancient Mesopotamia (60)

Superhuman monsters vanquished by the god Ninurta – The dragon and the bull man

The Dragon (Sumerian: Ušum or Ushum) who lives in a mountain fortress was one of the warriors slain by Ninurta, patron god of Lagash, in Angim myth (Ref). Its body was hung on the seat of his chariot according to the ancient source. It is first attested by a 22nd-century BCE cylinder inscription at Gudea.

In the Akkadian terms Bašmu (lit. "Venomous Snake") was an ancient Mesopotamian mythological creature, a horned snake with two forelegs and wings. It was also the Akkadian name of the Babylonian constellation equivalent to the Greek Hydra.

The bull-man (Sumerian: Kusarikku) on the other hand, is in the dust of battle. The bull-man is a hybrid creature, combination of a man's head and upper body and a bull's lower body, and is often represented as standing on his back legs like a man. He was also slayed by the god Ninurta. From Old Babylonian times onwards he was a follower of the sun god Utu.

シュメール神話～古代メソポタミア最古の神々(60)

ニヌルタ神が退治した超人的怪物たち〜竜と牛人間

山の城塞（じょうさい）に住む竜（シュメール語：ウシュム）は、アンギン神話（参照）でラガシュの守護神であるニヌルタが殺害した戦士の一人である。古代の資料によると、その体はニヌルタの戦車の座席に吊るされていたという。グデアの紀元前22世紀の円柱形の碑文で初めて証明された。

アッカド語ではバシュム（毒蛇の意）は、古代メソポタミアの神話上の生物で、2本の前脚と翼を持つ角のある蛇である。また、バビロニアの星座のアッカド語の名前でもあり、ギリシャ語のヒュドラーに相当する。

Language time: Akkadian, the language spoken by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, was a contemporary of Sumerian. Sumerian being the older of the two, without a concrete writing system and seemingly no known origin or relatives, Akkadians transliterated it for their own purposes, an even older Rosetta Stone. The region of Mesopotamia was actually the first known region where bilingualism was common! Anyways, Sumerian had two words for the beast known in English as the horned serpent: ušum and muššatur. The Akkadians had only one, bašmu, but there was still two distinct types of bašmu corresponding to the ušum and maššatur. The former is often made into the ušumbašmu or more popularly ušumgallu, while the latter is almost always just bašmu. We'll be talking about the latter. 

Bašmu, "venomous snake", is just that. A snake with horns. And possibly multiple heads, as one source gives it six mouths, seven tongues, and something else of seven on its stomach. This once again conforms to the pattern of mythical snakes being equated with the number seven in Mesopotamia. One fragment describes it as sixty double-miles long. Sadly, since I can't find the original source to see what word miles is translating, the only assumption to be made is that it's comparable to a Roman league. Rather than having you pull out your calculator and look up how big a Roman league is, sixty of these leagues is equivalent to 133.2 kilometers or 82.7 miles long. A scale that ought to be taken with a grain of salt, as in reality it's a large number meant to convey its awesomeness. Rather than matching the typical idea of a monster, the offspring of Tiamat were more like calamities given shape. In the sea the bašmu lived, a moving, live swell of ocean water and venom which devoured and destroyed whatever in came into contact with. Until the avenging god slayed it of course. No matter how great the monster, the hero coming to slay it will always be greater.

-- Again, not the biggest fan with the art for this one. I had the idea in my head and well...