Bug-men, while a popular motif in modern media (mostly due to Japanese influence), are not as represented in ancient art and folklore. Even the common image of the insectile fairy is derived from Victorian sources. Which makes the Girtablullû*, or "Scorpion Man" an old, odd exception. It is the only demon in the Mesopotamian sphere which has the features of an invertebrate. All other demons take from desert animals, considered the epitome of wild and dangerous by their standards: lions, snakes, bulls, eagles, and even onagers. The idea that scorpions were viewed as equally dangerous is interesting.
The earliest representations of girtablullû are simple, like stick-figures. Each has a scorpion's tail, the only thing found in every depiction, and what looks like stylized scorpion claws in the place of hands. As time went on they developed into purely human hands and were never seen again. Wiggermann believes that the claws were a cosmic tools, that the anthropomorphized scorpion was a being who manipulated the celestial bodies with its claws, moving the sun and moon and stars. Despite its change in appearance girtablullû never lost its solar connections. Within time the scorpion demon became very similar to others, like ugallu and Pazuzu; a human with bird-like legs and a scorpion tail. One shows girtablullû with what looks like ass ears, a common motif in demon artwork meant to denote that they come from the desert, a place of evil.
Then, something odd happens. Girtablullû begins to be depicted with a large, circular lower body (covered in scales?), with two bird or lion legs and a scorpion's tail behind. Even stranger is when they're depicted with this odd body arrangement, but with only a human head. From here they also receive the horned cap of the gods. Why the shift in appearance? It's possible that this was their attempt to draw a "scorpion-centaur", but if that was the case two ostensibly vertebrate legs doesn't make much sense. Scorpions are everywhere in the region, even today, so they don't have a lack of references to draw from. Pushing that question to the side, their last appearance in mythology, except when they're shown with all the other demon offspring of Tiamat, is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Two, a husband and wife, stand at the gates of Kurnugi beneath the cedar mountain of Mashu. Here the god exits from Kurnugi every morning and when he returns at night the girtablullû close the door behind him. They are sky-scraping, terrible monsters beyond the power of mortals. Two memorable lines declare, "terror is awesome and their glance is death". Interestingly, the movement of the sun god Shamash (to the Akkadians and Babylonians) is awfully similar to the Journey of Ra, where every night Ra enters into the Underworld to die, become reborn, and exit from every morning. Though they are monsters of Biblical (Gilgamesh-ical??) proportions, they still work for the sun god. Despite being so terrible they were defeated by Marduk and now serve the gods.
*the actual name of the being is what I use, with -lullû being a suffix used to denote a creature who is human above the waist, as seen in Kulullû and Urmahlullû. The name has been corrupted over the years into girtablilu, which is far more common on the internet. As well as another name for them, aqrabuamelu. I'll use the older version to remain consistent with all the other demons.
-- I wanted to avoid the incredibly realistic scorpion centaur a lot of other artists have gone with. Interpreting it literally probably isn't the right idea, but it also produces a really strange creature in the process, something that looks mythical and wholly un-naturalistic. Which is what I'm going for. For some reason I keep seeing people put my monster artwork in folders like "Spec Evo" and stuff, which is like. How. How did you think that.
Girtablullû is positioned in a way that obscures everything but one of his legs. As well, the scaly? body is extended and there's a deliberate ambiguity as to whether or not that's his actual skin or clothing or what else. Next time, we go unda da sea.
