Kulullû, inscribed ku₆- lú-u_18/19-lu, "Fish-Man", an ancient Mesopotamian mythical monster possibly inherited by

Marduk Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...

from his father Ea. In later Assyrian mythology he was associated with ''kuliltu'', "Fish-Woman", and statues of them were apparently located in the

Nabû Nabu ( akk, cuneiform: 𒀭𒀝 Nabû syr, ܢܵܒܼܘܼ\ܢܒܼܘܿ\ܢܵܒܼܘܿ Nāvū or Nvō or Nāvō) is the ancient Mesopotamian patron god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes, and wisdom. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian "nab ...

temple in Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, as referenced on a contemporary administrative text.

Ritual uses

He had the head, arms and torso of a human and the lower body and tail of a fish and was portrayed in sculptures found in palaces and on

kudurru A kudurru was a type of stone document used as a boundary stone and as a record of land grants to vassals by the Kassites and later dynasties in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 7th centuries BC. The original kudurru would typically be stor ...

s. With a bitumen smeared clay figurine, he seems to have found special purpose attracting prosperity and divine benevolence to households, as his icon was inscribed ''ri-da hi-ṣib'' KUR''-i er-ba taš-mu u ma-ga-ru'', "come down abundance of the mountain, enter intercession and compliance". He appears in Mesopotamian iconography from the Old Babylonian period onward. The Agum-Kakrime Inscription places his apotropaic icon on the gate of the '' ká-su-lim- ma'', the chamber of Marduk and his divine consort Zarpanītu. He was one of the eleven monstrous spawn of Tiāmat in the Epic of Creation, Enûma Eliš. He is one of the demons listed in tablet VIII of the Šurpu incantation series, the ritual to counter a curse of unknown origin. He also features in a hymn to Marduk and the gods of the Esagila. His depiction in Assyrian reliefs is limited to a marine scene in

Sargon II Sargon II (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is general ...

's palace at Khorsabad, ancient Dur-Šarru-kên, a small relief at Tell Halaf and on an ornamental brass ring found at Har Sena'im, an

Ituraea Iturea ( grc, Ἰτουραία, ''Itouraía'') is the Greek name of a Levantine region north of Galilee during the Late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. It extended from Mount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas to the Anti-Lebanon Mount ...

n cult site on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulullu Characters in the Enūma Eliš Mesopotamian legendary creatures Mesopotamian demons Offspring of Tiamat