Lamashtu: “She Who Erases”

Throughout history pregnancy has always been wrought with dangers. Miscarriages happen. Babies are stillborn. The mother dies during or shortly after birth. While medicine has massively reduced the risk today, sometimes we do not have an explanation. Back in ancient Mesopotamia, they blamed supernatural forces. They blamed Lamashtu.

 

Lamashtu was described as having the head of a lion, teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, blood stained hands with extremely long fingers and fingernails, and the feet of a bird. A truly demonic looking creature who would send anyone running for the hills screaming in terror who was believed to feed on the blood of human infants and was regularly blamed for miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths. 

 

Anyone reminded of Dracula’s brides and the scene where they attack Jonathan Harker but are commanded to leave him by Dracula, who then offers them an infant? Poor Jonathan then looks on in a mixture of horror and terror while listening to the screams of the mother who is standing just outside the castle walls.

 

It’s gruesome enough to make anyone put the book down out of sheer revulsion.

 

Back to Lamashtu. This demon was not just blamed for miscarriages, stillbirths, and cot death, she was also blamed for causing nightmares, spreading disease, destroying crops, and poisoning rivers.

 

So how did they stop her?

 

In hope of protecting themselves, people would carry amulets and talismans. They would also recite one of two incantations in hopes of keeping her at bay.

“Great is the daughter of Heaven who tortures babies
Her hand is a net, her embrace is death
She is cruel, raging, angry, predatory
A runner, a thief is the daughter of Heaven
She touches the bellies of women in labour
She pulls out the pregnant women’s baby
The daughter of Heaven is one of the Gods, her brothers
With no child of her own.
Her head is a lion’s head
Her body is a donkey’s body
She roars like a lion
She constantly howls like a demon-dog.”

Or…

“Lamash, daughter of Anu
Whose name has been uttered by the gods
Innin(Inanna), queen of queens
Lamashtu, O great lady
Who seizes the painful Asakku
Overwhelming the Alû
Come not nigh what belongeth to the man
Be conjured by Heaven
Be conjured by the Earth
Be conjured by Enlil
Be conjured by Ea.”

Not so dissimilar from modern vampire stories where characters carry crucifixes, stakes, and holy water while trusting in God to protect them.

Another way to protect yourself from Lamashtu was to invoke the demon Pazuzu. Yes, the same demon from the The Exorcist films! While he was believed to bring famine and drought to the land, he was also a fierce rival of Lamashtu and would rather fight her than cause problems for humans.


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