The Original Bitch

Eleanor Johnson in Harper’s Magazine:

The most enduring and influential monstrous bitch is the she-demon Lamashtu. She shape-shifts, appearing in different bodily forms at different times, in different stories, across Mesopotamian cultures. But despite that shiftiness, there are things about her that never change: Lamashtu is a demoness, and she is the daughter of a god; she is thus immortal, but not fully divine. Unlike other Mesopotamian demons, who can act only on the orders of the greater gods, Lamashtu can act entirely on her own. She is an autonomous demon.

Ancient Mesopotamians lived in abject fear of Lamashtu—for good reason. What pleases her most is tampering with human reproduction: she kills pregnant women, sucks fetuses from wombs, slaughters newborn babies, and sickens and slays young children, often brutally.

More here.

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