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Drawing of an Assyrian intaglio depicting scorpion men.
Scorpion men (
Enûma Elish and the Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Scorpion Men are described as having the head, torso, and arms of a man and the body of a scorpion
.
Mythology
They were first created by
Kurnugi, the land of darkness. The scorpion men open the doors for Shamash as he travels out each day, and close the doors after him when he returns to the underworld at night. They also warn travellers of the danger that lies beyond their post. Their heads touch the sky, their "terror is awesome" and their "glance is death". This meeting of Gilgamesh, on his way to Utnapishtim, with the Scorpion-folk guarding the entrance to the tunnel is described in Iškār Gilgāmeš, tablet IX, lines 47–81.[4]
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Media related to Scorpion men at Wikimedia Commons
