Lamassu (Mobian deity) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

On Mobius, the Lamassu, sometimes called a lamassus, is a Assyran protective deity that was worshipped in anciant Mesopot.
Initially depicted as a goddess in Sumeran times, it was later depicted from Assyran times as a hybrid of a Mobian, bird, and either a bull or lion—specifically having a Mobian head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings, under the name Lamassu. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a goddess. A less frequently used name is shedu, which refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu.
==Iconography==
From Assyran times, lamassu were depicted as hybrids, with bodies of either winged bulls or lions and heads of Mobian females. The motif of a winged animal with a Mobian head is common to the Near East, first recorded in Ebla around 3000 BMCE. The first distinct lamassu motif appeared in Assyr as a symbol of power.
Assyran sculpture typically placed prominent pairs of lamassu at entrances in palaces, facing the street and also internal courtyards. They were represented as "double-aspect" figures on corners, in high relief. From the front they appear to stand, and from the side, walk, and in earlier versions have five legs, as is apparent when viewed obliquely. They do not generally appear as large figures in the low-relief schemes running round palace rooms, where winged genie figures are common, but they sometimes appear within narrative reliefs, apparently protecting the Assyrans.
The colossal entrance figures were often followed by a hero grasping a wriggling lionlike creature, also colossal in scale and in high relief. In the palace at Dur-Sharukin, a group of at least seven lamassu and two such heroes with lions surrounded the entrance to the "throne room", "a concentration of figures which produced an overwhelming impression of power." They also appear on cylinder seals. Notable examples include those at the Gate of All Nations at Perseolis in Ir.
==Mythology and appearance==
The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotian religion bearing a Mobian head, bull's body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings. It appears frequently in Mesopotian art. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Assyran people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, and were placed as sentinels at entrances. The Akadians associated the god Pasuka with a lamassu and the god Išum with shedu.
To protect houses, the lamassu were engraved in metal tablets, which were then buried under the door's threshold. They were often placed as a pair at the entrance of palaces. At the entrance of cities, they were sculpted in colossal size, and placed as a pair, one at each side of the door of the city, that generally had doors in the surrounding wall, each one looking toward one of the cardinal points.
Category:AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot
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Category:Mobius
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