Monsters in Ancient Near Eastern Myth and Religion

Abstract Monsters are characteristic of ancient Near (or Middle) Eastern visual art and texts from before the rise of writing (c.3000 bce) to the Hellenistic conquests and beyond. This chapter considers hybrid beings as diverse and complex entities within their ancient Middle Eastern contexts—Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant—as well as influences on monsters of the Mediterranean world. Monumental art, magic amulets, Akkadian epics like Enūma eliš, Gilgamesh, and Anzû, and the Hebrew Bible are discussed with the goal of showing that (1) ancient Middle Eastern monsters frequently act as pets or guardians of gods and heroes, which complicates simplistic characterizations of monsters as chaos emblems; (2) though associated with the frontier, monsters were prominently incorporated into the iconography of central palaces, like those of the Assyrians; and (3) Mesopotamian monster-discourse influenced that of the Levant—the Phoenicians, Aramaeans, etc.—on its way to informing Greek and Roman articulations.