Shedu
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In Akkadian mythology the shedu were a type of demon, but they were demons of a benevolent nature, protective spirits of the houses, palaces and cities.
In art they were depicted as winged bulls and, less commonly, as winged lions; both forms had the heads of human males. The lion form is sometimes called lammasu. There are still surviving figures of shedu in bas-relief and some statues in museums. Notable examples of shedu/lamassu held by museums include those at the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art's Ancient Near Eastern galleries, those at the Louvre and one extremely large example kept at the Oriental Institute, Chicago. They are generally attributed to the ancient Assyrians.
To protect houses the shedu were engraved in clay tablets, which were buried under the door's threshold. At the entrance of palaces they were sculpted in natural size, and often placed as a pair, one at each side of the stairs that led to the door. At the entrance of cities they were sculpted in colossal size, and placed as a pair, one at each side of the door of the city, that generally had buttdoors in the surrounding wall, each one looking towards one of the cardinal points.
To build these statues some rituals should be followed, and some conjurations should be engraved in cuneiform characters.
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[edit] Lammasu: winged lions
In Mesopotamian mythology, the lammasu were legendary creatures which had the faces of men, the bodies of lions, and the wings of an eagle. They were said to guard temples and would attack all but the purest good or the purest evil. Compare with the Sphinx.
[edit] Lammasu in fiction
Lammasu are a type of good-aligned creature in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and in the Magic: The Gathering trading card game as the white card Hunted Lammasu in the Ravnica: City of Guilds expansion.
In Demon: The Fallen the lammasu are a house of fallen angels; see Houses in Demon: The Fallen. Lammasu is also a large bull-like creature in service of the Chaos Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
[edit] Bull man
The bull man is a demon from Mesopotamian mythology. He is a human above the waist and a bull below the waist. He also has the horns and the ears of a bull.
The bull man helps people fight evil and chaos. He holds the gates of dawn open for the sun god Shamash and supports the sun disc. He is often shown on Cylinder Seals.
It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art, sometimes with wings. Statues of the bull-man were often used as gatekeepers. Over time it evolved into a friendly, protective demon.
In Akkadian, he is called Gud-elim, or "The Horned Bull".
