Alternatively Mushhushshu and Muhussu (both names, as well as Sirrush, mean "splendor serpent").
A mythological hybrid creature depicted on the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of the city of Babylon, originally dating to the 6th century BC.
The Sirrush on the Ishtar Gate is a scaly dragon with hind legs like an eagle's talons, feline forelegs, a long neck and tail, a horned head, a snakelike tongue and an ornate crest. This beast was associated with the Babylonian god Marduk, and probably gave rise to the Lernaean Hydra of Greekmythology.
Incredibly, since the rediscovery of the Ishtar Gate in 1902, there has been speculation that the Sirrush may have been a living animal. The German archeologist Robert Koldewey, who dug up the ruins of Babylon in the early 1900s, was the first person to suggest it. According to him, depictions of the Sirrush, unlike those of other mythical creatures, rarely changed. Furthermore, he noted that the Sirrush is shown on the Ishtar Gate alongside real animals, the lion and the rimi, leading him to speculate that it was a creature the Babylonians were very familiar with.
In the Biblical text "Bel and the Dragon', Nebuchadnezzar planned to sacrifice the prophet Daniel to a dragon kept in a Babylonian temple, but Daniel managed to kill the beast by feeding it poisoned barley cakes. Could this have been a real story, and the dragon a living Sirrush?
Cryptozoologist Willy Ley once suggested that images of the Sirrush were quite close to those of sauropod dinosaurs. Could this beast have been a living dinosaur, a creature such as Mokele-Mbembe from Africa, an animal that somehow managed to survive extinction?
Adrienne Mayor, historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist, argues that ancient civilizations habitually took great care in excavating, transporting and reassembling fossils, raising the possibility that it represents a Babylonian reconstruction of sauropod remains.
This website is best viewed with the latest
versions of
Microsoft
Internet Explorer or
Firefox.
Occultopedia
makes extensive use of
Flash and Scripting in its pages and interface. Make certain your browser
permissions are set
accordingly and that you have the latest
Flash plug-in for the full experience, proper look and accurate
layout. You can do it with confidence. This site does not contain any viruses, malicious software
or scripts.
Occultopedia is the genuine article, the
original and the best internet index of the extraordinary and uncanny,
shamelessly copied by many, but never equaled. Online since 1995 at first in a free web space provider
(Tripod.com), and in 1997 finally
with its own domain name and hosting Occultopedia still is the
principal online resource for those looking for the unexplained, the
curious and the unusual.
Occultopedia respects your privacy. As
such, no cookies or any other tracking software will be installed as a
part of this website's original programming. I do not seek to obtain any personal information
beyond what is volunteered through electronic communications
(e.g. emails & forms).
Occultopedia may appear to be a for profit site, but my site is
not in reality a commercial one. All of the commercial links are from affiliate
programs, and the little revenue I get from these is to pay for hosting,
bandwidth that can be quite costly if you have a lot of traffic, graphics and
pages and any other expenses related to Occultopedia's upkeep, support, and maintenance.
For more details, visit my
ordering
information page.
Occultopedia is a
FREE online
resource available to the whole world. Usage of my word definitions and articles
by educational institutions, teachers and students alike, is here by granted.
Reproduction for profit, and for display in another web site is strictly
forbidden, and will be handled as copyright infringement and prosecuted to the
full extent of the law. However, if you follow
some simple guidelines,
I will grant permission for limited reproduction. For more information, please consult my
intellectual property rights, warranties and
disclaimers information page. Support Occultopedia and make it your
online shopping
destination. If you prefer, you can also make a donation.
HELP FOOT THE BILL: this website
is created and maintained by one guy, who also pays the hosting bill.
Please donate if you like and/or use Occultopedia.
Participate in Occultopedia and submit a word
definition or article for the occult encyclopedia at my
entry submission
page. If you would like to suggest a web site or page for
addition into Occultopedia's links database, please go to my
URL submission page.
.
.
Change Your Life!
