Mushussu, the dragon or the snakke

Mushussu, the dragon or the snakke, Babylon, Summerian, 5 - 6 B.C., Nye Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, Denmark). Made with Memento Beta. Nebuchadnezar (604-562 BC), the King of Babylon, started a series ofambitious building projects including the richly decorated Ishtar Cate. A long processional avenue linked the sacred gate to the temple ofthe city god Marduk and his famous temple tower, known from the Bible as the Tower of Babel. The facades ofthe Ishtar Gate were decorated with reliefs in glazed tile, representing a dragon, lVlardul<’s emblem, and a bull symbolising the weather god Adad. The processional route away from the city was decorated with lions, the animals of Ishtar, goddess of love and war, They were to guard against advancing enemies, as is indicated by the name of the gateway: Ishtar conquers its enemy.