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Bronze figurine of Mušhuššu from Samos (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list) Artefacts 06 Visual arts and architecture 06.02 Artefacts Lion-pawed dragon (Mušhuššu) 02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs 02.05 Animal/theriomorphic symbols and iconographic motifs 02.05.05 Composite beings 02.05.05.01 Lion-pawed dragon (Mušhuššu)	Keywords bronze figurines Greece Marduk Samos
Period 8th century BCE 7th century BCE	Channel Iconographic tradition

Text
The bronze figurine of the recumbent beast with a pillar-shaped symbol behind it, found in Samos (Greece), suggests close links between Samos and Babylonia. This monster is most likely Mušhuššu, the snake-dragon associated with the Babylonian national god Marduk. The pillar-shaped symbol reminds one of another symbol of Marduk, the pointed spade.

Bibliography

Black and Green 1992, 128-129, 166	Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, demons and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia. An illustrated dictionary. London: British Museum Press 1992.
Curtis 1994	Curtis, J. E. “Mesopotamian bronzes from Greek sites. The workshops of origin.” Iraq 65 (1994) 1-25. [JSTOR (requires subscription)]
Jantzen 1972	Jantzen, Ulf. Ägyptische und Orientalische Bronzen aus dem Heraion von Samos. Samos 8. Bonn: Habelt 1972.

Links (external links will open in a new browser window)
Cf. Hera’s cult on Samos (1)
Cf. Assyrian statuettes and figurines from Samos (1)
Cf. Babylonian figurines from Samos (1)

Christina Tsouparopoulou

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001537.php

Illustrations (click an image to view the full-size version in a new window)

Fig. 1: The god Marduk and his snake-dragon (Mušhuššu). Detail from a lapis lazuli cylinder seal dedicated to Marduk by the Babylonian king Marduk-zākir-šumi I (ca. 854-819 BCE) (taken from Black and Green fig. 105).

Fig. 2: Bronze group of dragon and pillar from Samos (B 1124). Photo courtesy of Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Athens (taken from Curtis 1994).

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