Language time: Akkadian, the language spoken by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, was a contemporary of Sumerian. Sumerian being the older of the two, without a concrete writing system and seemingly no known origin or relatives, Akkadians transliterated it for their own purposes, an even older Rosetta Stone. The region of Mesopotamia was actually the first known region where bilingualism was common! Anyways, Sumerian had two words for the beast known in English as the horned serpent: ušum and muššatur. The Akkadians had only one, bašmu, but there was still two distinct types of bašmu corresponding to the ušum and maššatur. The former is often made into the ušumbašmu or more popularly ušumgallu, while the latter is almost always just bašmu. We'll be talking about the latter.
Bašmu, "venomous snake", is just that. A snake with horns. And possibly multiple heads, as one source gives it six mouths, seven tongues, and something else of seven on its stomach. This once again conforms to the pattern of mythical snakes being equated with the number seven in Mesopotamia. One fragment describes it as sixty double-miles long. Sadly, since I can't find the original source to see what word miles is translating, the only assumption to be made is that it's comparable to a Roman league. Rather than having you pull out your calculator and look up how big a Roman league is, sixty of these leagues is equivalent to 133.2 kilometers or 82.7 miles long. A scale that ought to be taken with a grain of salt, as in reality it's a large number meant to convey its awesomeness. Rather than matching the typical idea of a monster, the offspring of Tiamat were more like calamities given shape. In the sea the bašmu lived, a moving, live swell of ocean water and venom which devoured and destroyed whatever in came into contact with. Until the avenging god slayed it of course. No matter how great the monster, the hero coming to slay it will always be greater.
--
Again, not the biggest fan with the art for this one. I had the idea in my head and well...
Whatever, no more negatives! Basmu is the simplest of all the demons, possibly barring Lahmu, who was just a dude. Instead of just drawing a simple snake with horns I added a collar. Which did nothing to remedy how plain it looked. Then bam, I thought: it seeps venom like a hagfish, give it a scaly hagfish body. And so here we are. Seven tongues, two horns, one collar. Also I finished the next one early so I'll post it tomorrow.
Next time, the... end?
