Lamassu

Creatures that look very much like this.

They're called the Lamassus.

These creatures that guarded the throne of the Assyrian kings, the body of an ox, the wings of an eagle, head of a human.

That composite guardian character would have been much more familiar sounding in an ancient Near Eastern context than it does to us.

What is this? Omega Absol's wings and elongated fur give it the appearance of an angel and its wings being reminiscent of Greek portrayals of sphinxes.

It also resembles a Lamassu, which is an Assyrian creature.

An

Absol is an Absol is an Absol.

That's it.

So anyway, I'm going to die because of, what is this here? Can I find it? Lamassu? I don't know, actually.

I have no idea about that.

I'm just not familiar with it.

Just like you would have had at Babel or at Eridu.

Nineveh, the Lamassu outside the...

Yeah, the Lamassu,

exactly.

Or the cherubim outside the Holy of Holies in the temple.

And we, well, that seems to be pulled from a great deal of creativity.

And so we talked about all the different meanings of this Shed word, and I suggested that it's this guardian family protective spirit that is seen in, related to the Lamassu, if you know anything about the cultures of the North.

And then later, we talked about how Bil'am seems to be from the North, and then when he's describing God, what name does he use but this Northern guardian familial name? Just potentially, if it's not that- And you have a different theory, great.

Tell us.

Between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, Assyrian kings, in what is now northern Iraq, built vast palaces decorated with carved reliefs and colossal guardian figures.

At palace entrances stood creatures we now commonly call Lamassu, enormous human-headed winged bulls or lions.

Some surviving examples weighed around 30 tons.

They were intended as supernatural guardians, protecting royal buildings from dangerous forces.

And a Syrian king could arrange for you to enter beneath a 30-ton winged bull with a human head.

the message is slightly firmer.

One fascinating detail about some Lamassu is that they appear to have five legs.

This is not because the sculptor became distracted.

And now, the number one post on the Daily X countdown.

From the account Fascinate, a winged Lamassu statue in the background of the 1992 Disney film Aladdin, which they tell us reveals that the genie's previous master was an ancient Anunnaki giant.

Folks, the lamp has lore.

Keep climbing, and I'll keep counting.

Now an image in Babylon.

At every temple and palace gate stood the Lamassu, colossal winged guardian beings, with the body of a bull or lion, the wings of an eagle, and the face of a man.

Composite creatures combining exactly those animals, guarding the threshold between human and the divine.

Ezekiel walked past them every time he entered a Babylonian sacred space.

The question was never distance.

It was, who wants to do this sort of thing? And underneath all four strands, the visual vocabulary was Babylonian.

The four-faced creatures are the Lamassu, The throne chariot is Babylonian celestial iconography.

Ezekiel, curious, desperate, a trained priest, dropped into the intellectual capital of the ancient world, walked into their sacred space, and, I have no doubt, asked every question he could, just as any of us would.