Usually lacking mouth, limbs, or ears they hid away in dark corners, haunting ruins and deserted buildings and “slinking through the streets at night like pariah dogs”, before at any moment emerging to envelop you like a cloak. The half demon, half human Alu were equally terrifying. The Utukku, also risen from the underworld, would lie in wait in the desert, mountains or graveyards, inflicting evil with a mere glance. They would approach a hapless traveller in a haunted place, fasten upon them and torment them until an exorcising priest intervened. From the underworld, ravenous Ekimmu rose up, desperately dissatisfied with their diet of dust, mud, and insufficient libations from family members.
From the heavens, godlike devils descended to “ride on noxious winds, spreading storms and pestilence”.
To live in ancient Mesopotamia, the book suggests, was to contend with a frightening variety of supernatural adversaries.
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