History Main / MesopotamianMonstrosity

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', Nergal is the name of a recurring character who is a shadowy demonic EldritchAbomination from the Earth's core. Despite his power and appearance however, he's actually a pretty decent guy, and he even marries Billy's aunt and has a son with her.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' opens with a LogoJoke for Creator/LegendaryPictures, showing their logo flanked by Mesopotamian-style carvings of a few of the {{kaiju}} characters. This foreshadows one of the movie's main themes: that ancient peoples were able to exist harmoniously with the "Titans". When we finally learn about the origins of [[DraconicAbomination King Ghidorah]], it's accompanied by a barrage of ancient art, much of it Mesopotamian, suggesting that Ghidorah may have been the inspiration for mythical dragons like Tiamat. Finally, when we go to the [[spoiler:UnderwaterRuins of an ancient Godzilla-worshipping civilization]], the architecture has a definite Mesopotamian influence, with [[SheduAndLammasu lamassu]] statues aplenty.
** On maps in the background, we see one of the [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]] that [[BenevolentConspiracy Monarch]] is researching is actually named Tiamat.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' cinematic "Erra" introduces the eponymous Erra, prince of Sentients who shares his name with the Akkadian god of plagues and chaos. He has a creepy humanoid look that resembles a bird's skeleton, and he has commanded the Sentients during [[GreatOffscreenWar the Old War]] to [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters eradicate the legacy of the Orokin that created them]] which -- unfortunately -- also includes all the innocent people who ''actually'' suffered under the Orokin rule. He has one very human trait though -- the familial love for his sister, which makes him susceptible to manipulation [[spoiler:by Ballas -- an Orokin executor who betrayed his empire to Sentients -- promising a way to undo her supposed [[HeelFaceBrainwashing brainwashing into Lotus]]. When Ballas decides to destroy the entire Solar System, Erra quickly changes his mind and sides with the Tenno he oh-so hated for "holding his sister hostage". Unfortunately, not only does he die helping them end Ballas's madness, he gets resurrected as Pazuul, a ram-headed, fanatical cult leader whose name seems to be based on Pazuzu.]]

* A number of {{superhero}} comics have featured [[Characters/MesopotamianMythology the Mesopotamian gods]] (or at least beings using their names) as gods, demons, gods degenerated into demons, or AncientAstronauts. Their resemblance to their depictions in the original myths varies. For example:
** ''ComicBook/HowardTheDuck'': {{Inverted|Trope}}; Pazuzu is the patron god of the Doucheblade. Played straight with the other Mesopotamian gods, whose followers were the enemies of the Doucheblade's original bearer.
** In ''ComicBook/ProjectSuperpowers'', Samson's nemesis is the Mesopotamian god Dagon, here presented as a massive kaiju-like merman.
** In a 1981 ''ComicBook/MadameXanadu'' comic, the protagonist prevents the manifestation on Earth of a couple of demonic beings calling themselves "Ishtar" and "Tammuz", implying that these were once Mesopotamian deities.
** In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' Annual #9 (2000) and the sequel miniseries ''ComicBook/JLA1997: Gatekeeper'' (2001), they're said to be an offshoot of the Oans, who themselves split into evil and good factions, with the evil faction, Nergal, Ereskigal and Pazuzu, becoming monstrous and demonic.

* ''[[Franchise/{{Alien}} The Alien Franchise]]'': Long before descending into misanthropy, the Engineers influenced the development of and were worshipped by many human cultures in antiquity. Mesopotamia was one such civilisation, and it is implied that cuneiform derives from the Engineers' writing system.

* Another Canaanite variant appears in ''Literature/GoodOmens'', with the NobleDemon Crowley's alias "Nanny Ashtoreth" derived from the Phoenician version of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.

* The eight novel in ''Literature/TheExpanse'' series, ''Tiamat's Wrath'', is titled after the Babylonian goddess of primordial chaos, alluding to eldritch beings who have [[PrecursorKillers killed the Ringbuilders]] in the distant past[[note]]"Distant" as in long before ''multicellular life'' even arose on Earth.[[/note]] [[spoiler:and now have humanity in their sights after [[TheEmperor Winston Duarte's]] [[BullyingADragon ill-advised attack on them]]]].
* The ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Necronomicon Simon Necronomicon]]'' is a literary hoax which pretends to be the real life version of the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Necronomicon]]. Parts of it consist of rituals claimed to be based on Mesopotamian magic, and claims some Mesopotamian gods are actually the Great Old Ones.
* The GreaterScopeVillain of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is the Calormene TopGod Tash, whose appearance is modeled partly on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apkallu apkallu,]] specifically on the bird-headed variety known to nineteenth-century Assyriologists as "Nisrochs" after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisroch an Assyrian god]] mentioned in Literature/TheBible.[[note]]"Nisroch" is often thought to be a misspelling of Nimrod, a king in the Literature/BookOfGenesis who in turn is often thought to be based partly on the Mesopotamian god Ninurta. The Literature/BooksOfKings and Literature/BookOfIsaiah pinpoint Nisroch's temple as the site of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib#Conspiracy,_murder_and_succession assassination]] in Nineveh. So when archaeologists discovered a nearby temple to Ninurta which might've been the one in question, they applied the term "Nisrochs" to the apkallu depicted in carvings there.[[/note]] The author Creator/CSLewis also applied a tweaked version of the name "Nisroch" to [[TheEmpire Calormen]]'s GodEmperor, the Tisroc ([[PhraseCatcher may he live forever]]). Lewis apparently got the idea from ''The Story of the Amulet'' (Creator/ENesbit's second sequel to ''Literature/FiveChildrenAndIt''), which features both a Nisroch who guides the {{kid hero}}es and a Babylonian king who demands that his subjects follow every mention of him with "may he live forever."

* ''Series/UltramanGaia'' had a MonsterOfTheWeek called Pazuzu, an extraterrestrial demon-like creature with electrical powers.

* Myth/{{Lilith}}: It has been suggested that the Jewish/Christian myth of Lilith (who, it's worth noting, isn't in the Bible [[note]]or not explicitly at least; the “screech owls” mentioned in Isaiah 34:15 are referred to by the Hebrew word “Lilithl,” suggesting that these may be owl demons[[/note]]) originated in the demonic ''lilitu'' of Mesopotamian legend. If so (and this isn’t certain), this is an unusual medieval instance of the trope.

* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' reinvisions the Edimmu of Sumerian myth, originally a type of VengefulGhost or demon, as a powerful [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne sevenfold spirit]] that can [[FoodChainOfEvil devour a vampire's soul]] and [[PossessingADeadBody possess its body]]. [[BloodMagic Blood witches]] created the first to assassinate a Babylonian GodEmperor vampire, then [[GoneHorriblyRight learned to their horror]] that each victim lets the Edimmu spawn seven more skeins of seven spirits. Millennia later, the legend ''terrifies'' vampires.

* ''TabletopGame/LeviathanTheTempest'': The Leviathans' origin myth is based on the Mesopotamian creation myth. The player characters themselves are KrakenAndLeviathan-style monstrosities who trace their lineage ultimately back to Tiamat through a Progenitor. And their big enemies are the Marduk Society.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' only touches on this trope in that the regions of Sudra are named in Sumerian, and are indeed [[OrganicTechnology full]] of [[BodyHorror monstrosities]]. ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'', however, leans all the way in - the world of Kiengir was formerly populated by a culture of Sumerian-speaking humanoids, who were visited by an AI called the [[SheduAndLammasu Lammasu]] who claimed who have come on a [[AbusivePrecursors divine mission]] and granted them a controlled amount of SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology... in exchange for [[BioAugmentation upgrading]], [[PoweredByAForsakenChild weaponising]], and [[WorkingForABodyUpgrade recruiting]] them into a war against the [[EldritchAbomination mysterious and equally-advanced]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udug Udug]]. The war ended with the Udug less defeated than ''[[NothingIsScarier missing]]'', and certain of the Kiengir survivors were [[RageAgainstTheHeavens sufficiently disillusioned with the Lammasu that they decided it should be next]].

** The Sea Monster Crisis event hung a big lampshade on the trope: the mastermind turns out to be Dagon, who's really mad about the impact of Creator/HPLovecraft's work (among others) [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve turning him into a freaky fish monster]], and is trying to resurrect his cult so he can turn himself back into the god of grain and prosperity he's supposed to be. Unfortunately, the steps he tries to take in that process go a tad too far to be left alone.

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the BigBad of two of the routes is [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero]]. His end goal is to use the Holy Grail to burn the world and rule over the survivors.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the Babylonia chapter, Tiamat, the Primordial Goddess of Creation, is revealed to be BigBad of the chapter and the first Beast fought. [[spoiler:She caused nearly everything to cease to exist and it took a lot to defeat her, up to and including the Grand Assassin Hassan forcing the concept of mortality upon her]].

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': The goddess Tiamat (Goddess of Chromatic Dragons) is portrayed as a five-headed dragon and is one of the main members of the universe's pantheon of gods. Pazuzu and Dagon are also present as powerful Demon Princes who control their own layers of the Abyss.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2270 SCP 2270]] is a set of texts detailing rituals needed to convince Ereshkigal (the goddess of the dead, referred to in the books as the "half-divine she-torturer") to in turn convince her husband Nergal (a god of death, war, and plagues, also associated with the scorching power of the sun) to do some divine smiting of an enemy. Said rituals are complex and rambling, but boil down to getting Ereshkigal's attention, translating one's request into her language (Nergal's own language is too far removed from humanity for him to understand such requests, but Ereshkigal can communicate with both him and humans), presenting her with a blood sacrifice to give to Nergal, and then reciting a long prayer while Nergal is doing the smiting in order to assure him of your conviction. If all goes well, the target is hit with the force of a major nuclear strike (estimated at 275 petajoules), but the caster is damned to enslavement in Nergal's sun furnace upon death. If the caster screws up, Nergal smites ''them'' instead.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The Chaos Dwarves have a Babylonian aesthetic, live in the approximate equivalent of the Middle East, and field evil winged bulls in battle. Dwarf-headed versions are called lammasu and are powerful casters and manipulators, to the point where it's uncertain whether a Sorcerer on a Lammasu is in charge or the lammasu.

* ''TabletopGame/LeviathanTheTempest'': The Leviathan's origin myth is based on the Mesopotamian creation myth. The player characters themselves are KrakenAndLeviathan-style monstrosities who trace their lineage ultimately back to Tiamat through a Progenitor. And their big enemies are the Marduk Society.

* ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': The goddess Ishtar originates from Myth/MesopotamianMythology. While [[BeautyIsBad not physically monstrous]], the vileness of her actions speak for themselves. She's a SerialRapist who has her familia members beaten into submission and then rapes them [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil physically]] and [[MindRape mentally]] to make them more compliant. She also encourages a culture of forced prostitution where she will have potential "customers" roped into accepting the familia's services with their consent being an afterthought at best. She also performs HumanSacrifice rituals involving members of her own familia to enhance her power. All to wage a war against Freya and her familia for [[EvilIsPetty rather petty reasons]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2270 SCP 2270]] is a set of texts detailing rituals needed to convince Ereshkigal (the goddess of the dead, referred to in the books as the "half-divine she-torturer") to in turn convince her husband Nergal (a god of death, war, and plagues, also associated with the scorching power of the sun) to do some divine smiting of an enemy. Said rituals are complex and rambling, but boil down to getting Ereshkigal's attention, translating one's request into her language (Nergal's own language is too far removed from humanity for him to understand such requests, but Ereshkigal can communicate with both him and humans), presenting her with a blood sacrifice to give to Nergal, and then reciting a long prayer while Nergal is doing the smiting in order to assure him of your conviction. If all goes well, the target is hit with the force of a major nuclear strike (estimated at 275 petajoules), but the caster is damned to enslavement in Nergal's sun furnace upon death. If the caster screws up, Nergal smites ''them'' instead.

-->– ''Literature/EnumaElish''

** ''ComicBook/HowardTheDuck'': Inverted; Pazuzu is the patron god of the Doucheblade. Played straight with the other Mesopotamian gods, whose followers were the enemies of the Doucheblade's original bearer.

** In a 1981 ''ComicBook/MadameXanadu'' comic, the protagonist prevents the manifestation on Earth of a couple of demonic beings calling themselves “Ishtar” and “Tammuz”, implying that these were once Mesopotamian deities.
** In ''Comicbook/GreenLantern'' Annual #9 (2000) and the sequel miniseries ''ComicBook/JLA1997: Gatekeeper'' (2001), they're said to be an offshoot of the Oans, who themselves split into evil and good factions, with the evil faction, Nergal, Ereskigal and Pazuzu, becoming monstrous and demonic.

* In one story of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Morpheus (who frequently gets to deal with deities, who after all originate in his realm of dreams) has brief dealings with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who has been reduced to dancing in a modern strip club. Where else could a rather dark sex-goddess find mass worship? She doesn't appear to be a monstrosity -- she ''appears'' to be an exceptionally talented exotic dancer -- until she gets suicidally depressed, and chooses her own way to go.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' opens with a LogoJoke for Creator/LegendaryPictures, showing their logo flanked by Mesopotamian-style carvings of a few of the {{kaiju}} characters. This foreshadows one of the movie's main themes: that ancient peoples were able to exist harmoniously with the "Titans". When we finally learn about the origins of [[DraconicAbomination King Ghidorah]], it's accompanied by a barrage of ancient art, much of it Mesopotamian, suggesting that Ghidorah may have been the inspiration for mythical dragons like Tiamat. Finally, when we go to the [[spoiler: UnderwaterRuins of an ancient Godzilla-worshipping civilization]], the architecture has a definite Mesopotamian influence, with [[SheduAndLammasu lamassu]] statues aplenty.

* The GreaterScopeVillain of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is the Calormene TopGod Tash, whose appearance is modeled partly on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apkallu apkallu]], specifically on the bird-headed variety known to nineteenth-century Assyriologists as "Nisrochs" after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisroch an Assyrian god]] mentioned in Literature/TheBible.[[note]]"Nisroch" is often thought to be a misspelling of Nimrod, a king in the Literature/BookOfGenesis who in turn is often thought to be based partly on the Mesopotamian god Ninurta. The Literature/BooksOfKings and Literature/BookOfIsaiah pinpoint Nisroch's temple as the site of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib#Conspiracy,_murder_and_succession assassination]] in Nineveh. So when archaeologists discovered a nearby temple to Ninurta which might've been the one in question, they applied the term "Nisrochs" to the apkallu depicted in carvings there.[[/note]] The author Creator/CSLewis also applied a tweaked version of the name "Nisroch" to [[TheEmpire Calormen]]'s GodEmperor, the Tisroc ([[PhraseCatcher may he live forever]]). Lewis apparently got the idea from ''The Story of the Amulet'' (Creator/ENesbit's second sequel to ''Literature/FiveChildrenAndIt''), which features both a Nisroch who guides the {{kid hero}}es and a Babylonian king who demands that his subjects follow every mention of him with "may he live forever."

[[folder: Web Original]]
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2270 SCP 2270]] is a set of texts detailing rituals needed to convince Ereshkigal (the goddess of the dead, referred to in the books as the "half-divine she-torturer") to in turn convince her husband Nergal (a god of death, war, and plagues, also associated with the scorching power of the sun) to do some divine smiting of an enemy. Said rituals are complex and rambling, but boil down to getting Ereshkigal's attention , translating one's request into her language (Nergal's own language is too far removed from humanity for him to understand such requests, but Ereshkigal can communicate with both him and humans), presenting her with a blood sacrifice to give to Nergal, and then reciting a long prayer while Nergal is doing the smiting in order to assure him of your conviction. If all goes well, the target is hit with the force of a major nuclear strike (estimated at 275 petajoules), but the caster is damned to enslavement in Nergal's sun furnace upon death. If the caster screws up, Nergal smites ''them'' instead.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', and ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Chaos god of disease, Nurgle, is implied to have been worshiped as the Mesopotamian god of plague (and war) Nergal.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' only touches on this trope in that the areas of the map are named in Sumerian, and are indeed [[OrganicTechnology full]] of [[BodyHorror monstrosities]]. ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'', however, leans all the way in - the world of Kiengir was formerly populated by a culture of Sumerian-speaking humanoids, who were visited by an AI called the [[SheduAndLammasu Lammasu]] who claimed who have come on a [[AbusivePrecursors divine mission]] and granted them a controlled amount of SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology... in exchange for [[BioAugmentation upgrading]], [[PoweredByAForsakenChild weaponising]], and [[WorkingForABodyUpgrade recruiting]] them into a war against the [[EldritchAbomination mysterious and equally-advanced]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udug Udug]]. The war ended with the Udug less defeated than ''[[NothingIsScarier missing]]'', and certain of the Kiengir survivors were [[RageAgainstTheHeavens sufficiently disillusioned with the Lammasu that they decided it should be next]].

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' only touches on this trope in that the areas of the map are named in Sumerian, and are indeed [[OrganicTechnology full]] of [[BodyHorror monstrosities]]. ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'', however, leans all the way in - the world of Kiengir was formerly populated by a culture of Sumerian-speaking humanoids, who were visited by an AI called the [[SheduAndLammasu Lammasu]] who claimed who have come on a [[AbusivePrecursors divine mission]] and granted them a controlled amount of SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology... in exchange for [[BioAugmentation upgrading]], [[PoweredByAForesakenChild weaponising]], and [[WorkingForABodyUpgrade recruiting]] them into a war against the [[EldritchAbomination mysterious and equally-advanced]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udug Udug]]. The war ended with the Udug less defeated than ''[[NothingIsScarier missing]]'', and certain of the Kiengir survivors were [[RageAgainstTheHeavens sufficiently disillusioned with the Lammasu that they decided it should be next]].

* ''Tabletop/WarhammerFantasy'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', and ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Chaos god of disease, Nurgle, is implied to have been worshiped as the Mesopotamian god of plague (and war) Nergal.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Chaos god of disease, Nurgle, is implied to have been worshiped as the Mesopotamian god of plague (and war) Nergal.