Lamashtu: The Demoness That Kills Children

Lamashtu is a Babylonian and an Assyrian demoness known for terrorizing pregnant women and children. She would steal babies away as they were breastfed or sneak into homes at night and kill pregnant women.

Lamashtu is the daughter to Anu, the sky god in Sumerian lore. She bears a striking resemblance to the demoness Lilith especially in their similar characteristics and taste for the blood of infants. It is said that she would gnaw on the bones of the infants she kidnapped and suck their blood dry.

 

Description:

Other names: Lamastu, Dimme

Appearance:

Lamastu (Lamashtu) is depicted as having a hairy body, the head of a lioness with a donkey’s teeth and ears, long finger and fingernails with the feet of a bird bearing talons. The demoness is often portrayed kneeling or standing on a donkey while breastfeeding a piglet and a whelp. The reason why she steals babies is that she has no child of her.

Abilities:

• She has the power to kill foliage and plants.
• She is a carrier of plagues, death, disease, sickness and illness of all sorts.
• Lamastu infests rivers and streams making them bad for use.
• She disturbs the sleep of pregnant women, children and men with nightmares.
• She kills children, infants and expectant mothers often by tapping on their bellies seven times.
• Lamastu steals babies from wet nurses.

About:

Lamashtu in folklore is portrayed on amulets as a demoness with a lion or bird’s head kneeling or standing on a donkey. She holds a double-headed serpent on each hand while breast feeding a dog on her right bare breast and a pig or another dog on her left bare breast. She has teeth and ears of an ass, long fingernails and the talons of a bird.

The demoness bears seven manes and is described as seven witches in several incantations. Her arch rival is the demon god Pazuzu, who can be summoned or called upon to protect pregnant women and neonates from the horrors of Lamashtu.

Lamastu Sigil

 

This sigil represents the archetype of the Devourer and the Mother of Abortions. The triangle is symbolic of the womb of the goddess, which can either be a grave or a place of rebirth and illumination. The seven snakes represent the connection of the goddess to the number seven as a mystical symbol, and the black wings show that we are dealing here with an entity connected with primordial darkness. The three snakes at the bottom of the sigil form the shape of a trident, the pillar of ascent, which is inverted, showing that initiation should be sought within ourselves.

Working against Lamastu:

An old Akkadian incantation and ritual against Lamashtu is edited in Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments vol. 2 (1988).

It is glossed as an “incantation to dispel lasting fever and Lamashtu”. The prescribed ritual involves a Lamashtu figurine.

A sacrifice of bread must be placed before the figurine and water must be poured over it. A black dog must be made to carry the figurine. Then it is placed near the head of the sick child for three days, with the heart of a piglet placed in its mouth. The incantation must be recited three times a day, besides further food sacrifices. At dusk on the third day, the figurine is taken outdoors and buried near the wall. Only then can the fever be dispelled and the demoness driven away from devouring the child.

Like most foul creatures with a taste for blood of different kinds of humans, Lamashtu can be sent away or forced away through other alternate means. Women protected themselves and their infants against her by wearing amulets made of bronze and fashioned as the head of Pazuzu, who is her arch rival according to lore.

Offerings of centipedes and brooches were made to keep her away from the homes of pregnant women or from stealing new born from wet nurses or their mothers.

 

Going further:

There is a written form of an incantation against Lamastu the demoness which reads thus:

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 labor

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

.

References:

Image Source: https://www.becomealivinggod.com/2/lamashtu-sigil-og/

1.https://www.themystica.com/lamashtu/

2.http://www.ancientneareast.net/mesopotamian-religion/lamastu-lamashtu/

3.http://vampirepalace666.yolasite.com/know-ur-vampires/lamatsu

4.https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lamashtu

5.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamashtu

6.The Encyclopedia for Demons and Demonology.