Ur(i)dimmu, meaning "Mad/howling Dog" or Langdon's "Gruesome Hound", ( Sumerian: 𒌨𒅂UR.IDIM and giš.pirig.gal = ''ur-gu-lu-ú'' = ''ur-idim-'' 'mu''in the lexical series ḪAR.gud = ''imrû'' = ''ballu''), was an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n mythical creature in the form of a human headed dog-man whose first appearance might be during the Kassite period, if the Agum-Kakrime Inscription proves to be a copy of a genuine period piece. He is pictured standing upright, wearing a horned tiara and holding a staff with an ''uskaru'', or lunar crescent, at the tip. The lexical series ḪAR-ra=ḫubullu describes him as a ''kalbu šegû'', line 95. "rabid dog".

Mythology

His appearance was essentially the opposite, or complement of that of Ugallu, with a human head replacing that of an animal and an animal's body replacing that of a human. He appears in later iconography paired with

Kusarikku Kusarikku ("Bull-Man") was an ancient Mesopotamian mythological demon shown in artistic representation from the earliest (late Uruk period) times with the arms, torso and head of a human and the ears, horns and hindquarters of a bull. He is portr ...

, "Bull-Man", a similar anthropomorphic character, as attendants to the god

Šamaš Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

. He is carved as a guardian figure on a doorway in Aššur-bāni-apli's north palace at

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

. He appears as an intercessor with

Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...

and Zarpanītu for the sick in rituals. He was especially revered in the

Eanna E-anna ( , ''house of heavens''), also referred to as the Temple of Inanna, was an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Considered the "residence" of Inanna, it is mentioned throughout the ''Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is ...

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

during the neo-Babylonian period where he seems to have taken on a cultic role, where the latest attestation was in the 29th year of

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

. As one of the eleven spawn of

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic '' Enûma Elish'', which translates as "when on high". She is referred to as a woman, an ...

in the Enûma Eliš vanquished by

, he was displayed as a trophy on doorways to ward off evil and later became an apotropaic figurine buried in buildings for a similar purpose. He became identified as MUL- or ^dUR.IDIM with the constellation known by the Greeks as Wolf (

Lupus Lupus, formally called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Common ...

).''Urdimmu'', CAD U/W pp. 214–216.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urdimmu Characters in the Enūma Eliš Mesopotamian legendary creatures Mesopotamian demons Offspring of Tiamat Human-headed mythical creatures Mythological dogs