The Assyrians, who had a state in northern Mesopotamia, had a lot of enemies in the 9th to 7th century BCE. Their land would sometimes get invaded, and a lot of battles occurred. They had to do something about it — something that would protect and intimidate their land from intruders.
The story starts with ancient Sumerians, who believed in a depicted goddess called Lamma that is half human and half lion and has wings. She protects Sumerians in the name of the gods. Mesopotamian civilizations used the features and called it a Lamassu. Unlike Lamma, a Lamassu was a male mythical creature with a bearded head, five legs, and instead of a goddess, he was a guardian.
The Assyrians placed sculptures of Lamassus, weighing up to 30 tons, at the entrances of palaces in several cities such as Nimrud and Dur Sharrukin, located in modern day Iraq. These sculptures were also used for guarding gateways and fending off intruders and evil spirits. If you don’t feel like that protects you, the Lamassu has the strength of a bull and intelligence of a human, additionally it has wings! It is so frightening that in ancient times whenever an invader saw a Lamassu guarding their opponent, they could become frightened and surrender to the opponent.
Lamassus are the security guards of the ancient era. If you ever feel insecure in your home, you could just get a Lamassu to guard it.
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