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Other major deities Adad Dumuzid Enkimdu Enmesharra Ereshkigal Ki Kingu Geshtinanna Lahar Marduk Nergal Ninurta Šulpae
Minor deities Agasaya Anunnaki Asaruludu Ashnan Ashgi Bel Dumuzi-abzu Enbilulu Erra Erragal Gibil Hendursaga Igigi Isimud Išum Kajamanu Lahar Laṣ Lisin Lugala'abba Mami/Nintu Mamitu Maštabba Nabu Namtar Nanshe Nindara Ninmarki Nisaba Ninazu Ningal Ningirida Ningirima Ninkasi Ninkilim Ninlil Ninmug Ninšar Ninsikila Ninšubur Ninsun Nuska Paniĝinĝarra Sarpanit Shul-utula Šubula Šulpae Tišpak Uttu
Demigods and heroes Adapa Enkidu Enmerkar Gilgamesh Lugalbanda Shamhat Siduri Atra-Hasis Ziusudra Apkallu (seven sages)
Spirits and monsters Udug Lamassu/Shedu Asag Edimmu Siris Anzû Ušum/Dragon Kuli-ana/Mermaid Bašmu Mušmaḫḫū Ušumgallu Seven-headed serpent Humbaba Hanbi Kur Lamashtu Lilu Pazuzu Rabisu
Tales Mythology An = Anum Atra-Hasis Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta Enūma Eliš Epic of Gilgamesh
Terms Dingir Sukkal
v t e

Ušumgallu or Ushumgallu (Sumerian: 𒁔 𒃲ušum.gal, "Great Dragon") was one of the three horned snakes in Akkadian mythology, along with the Bašmu and Mušmaḫḫū. Usually described as a lion-dragon demon, it has been somewhat speculatively identified with the four-legged, winged dragon of the late 3rd millennium BCE.

Mythology

Tiamat is said to have "clothed the raging lion-dragon with fearsomeness" in the Epic of Creation, Enuma Elish. The god Nabû was described as "he who tramples the lion-dragon" in the hymn to Nabû. 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."

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

In the god list An = Anum Ušumgal is listed as the sukkal (vizier) of Ninkilim.

See also

• Anzû, a massive bird whose death was sometimes credited to Ninurta
• Dragon, killed by Ninurta
• Seven-headed serpent, killed by Ninurta

References

1. ^ ušumgallu, CAD U/W, pp. 330–331.
2. Syllablized as Ú-šum-gal-lu.
3. F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992). Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts. Styx Publications. p. 167. ISBN 978-9072371522.
4. Irene Winter (2009). On Art in the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E, Volume 1. Brill. pp. 28–29.
5. Wiggermann instead proposes "prime venomous snake”. Winter translated it as "predator".
6. KAR 104, 29.
7. E. Reiner (1961). "The Etiological Myth of the "Seven Sages"". Orientalia (30): 1–11.
8. A. Leo Oppenheim (2011). "Assyrian and Babylonian Historical Texts: The Banquet of Ashurnasirpal II". In James Bennett Pritchard (ed.). The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton University Press. p. 253.
9. Kyle Greenwood (2011). "A Shuilla: Marduk 2". In Alan Lenzi (ed.). Reading Akkadian prayers and hymns : an introduction. SBL. pp. 317, 323.
10. R. L. Litke, A Reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian God-lists, AN:A-nu-um and AN:Anu Ŝá Amēli, 1998, p. 172

• Characters in the Enūma Eliš
• Mesopotamian legendary creatures
• Mesopotamian demons
• Offspring of Tiamat
• Dragons