History

4976 readers

20 users here now

Welcome to History!

A community dedicated to sharing and discussing fascinating historical facts from all periods and regions.

Rules:

FOLLOW THE CODE OF CONDUCT

Post about history. Ask a question about the past, share a link to an article about something historical, or talk about something related to history that interests you. Discussion is encouraged.
No memes. No ads. No promos. No spam.
No porn.
We like facts and reliable sources here. While sources like Quora/Reddit/Wikipedia can be great tools for quick searches, we do not allow such user-generated content as primary source. What’s wrong with Wikipedia?

NOTE: Personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated. Stick to talking about the historical topic at hand in your comments. Insults and personal attacks will get you an immediate ban.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

WEEKLY DISCUSSION SEPT 11-17 ANCIENT NEAR EAST (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Demons, as they're called in English translation, have haunted Christians in the Western World for a very long time. In the Ancient Near East, they could be nice or not so nice, forming a part of a fascinating, and complex pantheon that people invoked and worshiped. A fine distortion of this religious system would be the film The Exorcist in which a child is possessed by Pazuzu, a demon who, in the Ancient Near East, was actually invoked to save young children and fetuses, to defeat Lamashtu, a demon who enjoyed taking babies, fetuses, and pregnant women away from the physical world. Why, in your opinion, is it fun for modern Westerners to demonize such Ancient Near Eastern "demons" in Hollywood films and get it all so totally wrong and historically inaccurate?

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think it's partly because of incorrect knowledge and misinterpretation of the knowledge that they have. The demons you mentioned sounded very interesting. Could you suggest any articles etc for further reading?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There is an interesting article from the Met Museum to get started. I read an article a long time ago about amulets people wore (another popular fiction theme) but I can't remember where I saw it. I hope this is useful! Also, you have made a good point. Thanks for your insight!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

That was interesting. The name "pazuzu" sounded familier to me, probably because of the movie.