Dragons, Monsters and Fabulous Beasts

The Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem had on display a rich array of fantastic creatures of antiquity that explored the facinating mythology and dramatic tales that surround composite beasts of the ancient world. 

On view were masterpieces of ancient art on those beasties, never before exhibted before in Israel. You were able to gaze upon a 'mushussu' (a mythical beast of Mesopotamia) depicted on an Inner Gate in Babylon. (Glazed brick, Southern Mesopotamia 605-562 BCE.) Courtesy of the Staatiche zu Berlin (Vaderaintiches Museum). A seated Winged Sphinx of solid cast bronze (South Italy ca. 530 BCE) was your guardian. But one was almost frightened when the visitor saw a 'Nintura', a Sumerian god battling a Seven-Headed Monster (Shell, southern Mesopotamia, ca. 2500-2400 BCE.) And other fabulous beasts were displayed for your interest in various forms of crafted artifacts.

These, and other mythical creatures of the ancient world are artistically accomplished creations that serve as an affirmation of the positive cultural interrelationships between the classical world and the civilizations of the Ancient Near East.

Supernatural, creatures and awe-inspiring fearful mystical beasties figured prominently in the vivid imagination of the civilizations of the Near East. Those mystical beings, which combine both animal and human features, testified to the belief on ancient man  in unseen forces acting on the world. The myths surrounding those hybrid figures were regarded as a sacred story, hence a 'true story' because it always deals with realities. 

The myth that told of the involvement of mythical beasties in the creation of the world because the existence of the world is there to prove it; the myth of the origin of death and destruction was enhanced through the presence of awe-inspiring monsters and other hybrid fabulous beasts.