Amulet with a Lamashtu Demon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2010

Title: Amulet with a Lamashtu demon

Date: early 1st Millennium BC

Geography: Mesopotamia or Iran

Medium: Obsidian

Dimensions: 2.26 x 1.83 in. (5.74 x 4.65 cm)

Classification: Stone-Ornament, Inscribed

Credit Line: Purchase, James N. Spear Gift, 1984

Accession Number: 1984.348

On View

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/all/am...

and

Lamashtu, a female leonine demon with talons and blood-stained paws, was thought to usher in disease and death upon hot winds from the west. On the limestone amulet, she is shown suckling a pig and a dog and grasping double-headed snakes. While her malevolence was directed primarily against pregnant women and babies, the obsidian amulet bears a prayer that reads, "Do not approach the sick man." Each amulet depicts ceremonial objects and offerings to appease the demon: a lamp, legs of lamb, a shoe, a comb, and a spindle. Images of Pazuzu were used to counteract Lamashtu and drive her back into the underworld.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.