g was
regarded as the beloved son of Bel, and offspring of /Eres-ki-gal/ or
Persephone, and he had a spouse named /Hus-bi-saga/. Apparently he
executed the instructions given him concerning the fate of men, and
could also have power over certain of the gods.

The /sedu/ were apparently deities in the form of bulls. They were
destructive, of enormous power, and unsparing. In a good sense the
/sedu/ was a protecting deity, guarding against hostile attacks. Erech
and the temple E-kura were protected by spirits such as these, and to
one of them Isum, "the glorious sacrificer," was likened.

The /lamassu/, from the Sumerian /lama/, was similar in character to
the /sedu/, but is thought to have been of the nature of a colossus--a
winged man-headed bull or lion. It is these creatures which the kings
placed at the sides of the doors of their palaces, to protect the
king's footsteps. In early Babylonian times a god named Lama was one
of the most popular deities of the Babylonian pantheon.

A specimen incantation.

Numerous inscriptions, which may be regarded as dating, in their
origin, from about the middle of the third millennium before Christ,
speak of these supernatural beings, and also of others similar. One of
the most perfect of these inscriptions is a large bilingual tablet of
which a duplicate written during the period of the dynasty of
Hammurabi (before 2000 B.C.) exists, and which was afterwards provided
with a Semitic Babylonian translation. This inscription refers to the
evil god, the evil /utukku/, the /utukku/ of the plain, of the
mountain, of the sea, and of the grave; the evil /sedu/, the glorious
/alu/, or divine bull, and the evil unsparing wind. There was also
that which takes the form of a man, the evil face, the evil eye, the
evil mouth, the evil tongue, the evil lip, the evil breath; also the
afflicting /asakku/ (regarded as the demon of fever), the /asakku/
which does not leave a man: the afflicting /namtaru/ (fate), the
severe /namtaru/, the /namtaru/ which does not quit a man. After this
are mentioned various diseases, bodily pains, annoyances, such as "the
old shoe, the broken shoe-lace, the food which afflicts the body of a
man, the food which turns in eating, the water which chokes in
drinking," etc. Other things to be exorcised included the spirit of
death, people who had died of hunger, thirst, or in other ways; the
handmaid of the /lilu/ who had no husband, the prince o