![]() Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that Anzu was an early form of the god Abu, who was also syncretized by the ancients with Ninurta/Ningirsu, a god associated with thunderstorms. Origin and cultural evolution Inscribed head of a mace with Imdugud (Anzu) and Enannatum, the British Museum, London. AN.ZU could therefore mean simply "heavenly eagle". ![]() However, there is evidence for both readings of the name in both languages, and the issue is confused further by the fact that the prefix □ ( AN) was often used to distinguish deities or even simply high places. It has also been argued based on contextual evidence and transliterations on cuneiform learning tablets, that the earliest, Sumerian form of the name was at least sometimes also pronounced Zu, and that Anzu is primarily the Akkadian form of the name. Changes like these occurred by evolution of the im to an (a common phonetic change) and the blending of the new n with the following d, which was aspirated as dh, a sound which was borrowed into Akkadian as z or s. Similar phonetic changes happened to parallel terms, such as imdugud (meaning "heavy wind") becoming ansuk. ![]() In 1989, Thorkild Jacobsen noted that the original reading of the cuneiform signs as written (giving the name " dIM.dugud") is also valid, and was probably the original pronunciation of the name, with Anzu derived from an early phonetic variant. In 1961, Landsberger argued that this name should be read as "Anzu", and most researchers have followed suit. In texts of the Old Babylonian period, the name is more often found as □□□□ AN.IM.DUGUD MUŠEN. The name of the mythological being usually called Anzû was actually written in the oldest Sumerian cuneiform texts as □□□□ ( AN.IM.MI MUŠEN the cuneiform sign □, or MUŠEN, in context is an ideogram for "bird"). 2550–2500 BC found at Tell Telloh the ancient city of Girsu, ( Louvre) Name Alabaster votive relief of Ur-Nanshe, king of Lagash, showing Anzû as a lion-headed eagle in a Master of Animals motif, ca. However, the Anzu character does not appear as often in some other writings, as noted below. Stephanie Dalley, in Myths from Mesopotamia, writes that "the Epic of Anzu is principally known in two versions: an Old Babylonian version of the early second millennium, giving the hero as Ningirsu and 'The Standard Babylonian' version, dating to the first millennium BC, which appears to be the most quoted version, with the hero as Ninurta". Anzû was depicted as a massive bird who can breathe fire and water, although Anzû is alternately depicted as a lion-headed eagle. He was conceived by the pure waters of the Apsu and the wide Earth, or as son of Siris. Ninurta with his thunderbolts pursues Anzû stealing the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil's sanctuary ( Austen Henry Layard Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd Series, 1853)Īnzû, also known as dZû and Imdugud ( Sumerian: □□□ AN.IM.DUGUD MUŠEN), is a monster in several Mesopotamian religions.
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