Anzû

For this week's episode, we're heading over to Ancient Mesopotamia for another storm bird, Anzû! How did this incredible monster have both demonic and godly origins? Can you kill it with normal weapons? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

You’re tuning in whilst I’m relaxing on a beach in Turkiye and I’m sure you’re all very jealous, although, don’t be because I assure you, even though I’m recording this prior, I know for a fact that I’m already sunburnt. I got sunburnt in the UK at the weekend, so it’s almost 100% a given.

DESCRIPTION:

We’re also going to a nice warm place this week and heading to ancient Mesopotamia, including Turkiye itself and we’re looking at another awesome Storm bird from this part of the world this week, and their name is Anzu.

Anzu is described as a massive eagle-like bird that can transform into the same size storm cloud at any point, with a lion’s head that roared to create thunder. It was described as being an immense size, but we’re not entirely sure how big - what we do know is that it at least would be the size of a small house, with a wingspan of at least 60 feet. Not only this, but it had razor sharp claws and a sharp beak that could pull apart any prey, and a call that could be heard in other Middle Eastern countries when angered. 

Depending on what mythology you look at them through, they could be described as both malevolent and benevolent - or even going from one to the other, as well as sometimes being described as demonic too. But thankfully, they didn’t eat humans, which is pretty good. They lived mostly on large mammals and fish, which they would strike down on from a considerable height. They were also able to fly, which sometimes is an issue with bigger sized legendary birds. 

That’s about it in terms of description of what it actually looks like, which I know is minimal, but for their powers there is a little bit more. They have complete control over the storm and weather, and are able to cause hurricanes, tornadoes and storms to certain areas. They were also able to transform into humans if they so wished, and this was because as well as being described as demonic, they’re also sometimes described as being godly. Because of this, they could also grant powers of anything the person desired to worthy worshippers who provided the bird with gifts and tell others their fate if they so wished.

So where did that come from? It’s thought that Anzu was an early form of the Mesopotomian god Abu, who was believed to be a god of the underworld due to his link to vegetation, snakes and godly death as he was referred to as Father Pasture. Abu joined with the god of thunderstorms, Ninurta, who we’ll come back to later on for another story, and they came together to represent the rainstorms watering the crops in the spring. 

Anzu emerged from the pure waters of the Abzu, or the primordial waters and the earth and sprang forth into the world as a young mythical titan monster. However, Anzu has also been thought to have been just a solo female deity, who is able to lay eggs and procreate, but how, we do not know. Other than the emerging from the earth when it was born, you would find them in gigantic nests far away from humans.

Could you kill this monster though? It does sound pretty godly and vicious, well that would take an army with enchanted weapons and a god to do so - so don’t even try. The best way to take Anzu out would be to wait until it tires itself out, then get all of the weak spots whilst its guard is down. It was considered quite a sneaky bird considering its size though, and power hungry - so it’s definitely not to be messed with.

ORIGIN:

For their etymology, there’s actually considerable argument about this within the mythology space due to the various languages and pronunciations within the regions. In Akkadian, An means heavenly and zu means eagle, but in Sumerian, it’s Musen which means bird. In Babylonian, it’s name is taken from the Abzu that it emerges from - but no one can really decide on a definitive answer. 

Speaking of which, I didn’t really go into where this monster comes from. Ancient Mesopotamia is super interesting as it’s split into different countries and different historical periods where different people were in charge of culture and society. These countries were modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkiye and Kuwait, and from 3500 BC when the Sumerian culture was king, through to Akkadian in 2350 BC, Babylonian in 2000 BC and Assyrian from 1500 to 500 BC - there have been a lot of changes within the microcosm of Mesopotamian culture. Anzu appears in all of these different religions and mythologies within these times, and is sometimes understood very differently within them. 

This kicks us off into history properly and we believe that Anzu has been around since around 3500 BC, making them one of our oldest mythical monsters we’ve covered. We have this backed up by a load of myths about them from epics from around the time, which are usually ancient prose or poetry. 

The first story about Anzu is from Sumerian folklore, from an epic called Lugalbanda and Enmerkar. Lugalbanda was a Sumerian king of Uruk that turned into a god. Lugalbanda ends up getting lost in the Zabu Mountains, when he decides to visit Anzu and his family to sing their praises and get something in return - like you should expect when you go to someone else’s house.

Lugalbanda climbs to the mountain’s peak and find’s Anzu’s chick nesting and decides to cover the bird in luxuries whilst it’s dad is out hunting. Anzu comes home and finds the king and the presents and is super grateful and grants him magical powers of super speed, but makes the king promise to form a cult around the magic of Anzu themself in Uruk.

That’s technically where that one ends, but the myth is picked up again in the Journey of Ninurta to Eridu. I did say that Ninurta would come back at some point, the storm god. In this one, Anzu guides the god to Abzu and tells the god his fate and to thank the monster, who is kind of technically his child, he promises to create another cult in Anzu’s name and make a beautiful statue in his likeness. 

The last myth around Anzu is also his last, the myth of Anzu and the tablet of destiny, which is from Babylonian texts. Anzu decides to get sneaky and peek on the god Enlil who was the king of the Sumerian gods, and steal his tablet which contains all of the god’s power. He does so, and the gods freak out until they decide that Ninurta, once again, should be the god to sort him out, as he loved a bit of war. 

Ninurta raises an army against Anzu with enchanted weapons, but Anzu uses the tablet to dismantle all of them. There are so many though, that the bird is having to constantly focus to take them apart, making him weary. In this moment, Ninurta cut off the beast’s wings and killed him, which restored order to the godly cosmos of Babylonia. 

An Anzu is also mentioned briefly in the Sumerian epic most people know, Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld, in the story of Inanna and the Huluppu Tree - but just kind of sitting in the tree, so there’s not much else to tell ya.

From these texts, it’s tricky to justify Anzu’s last mistake - however, we can’t ignore that Anzu is a perfect personification of nature and how unpredictable and deadly it can be, which matches his nature itself and his powers. Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of this information from old statues and physical art, which has worn away over the centuries and so, the only real people who know how good or bad Anzu was, were the ancient Mesopotomians, and they are longer than long gone. 

I guess in conclusion to these stories, to us as mythical monster fans, Anzu just seems like another stormy bird and this trope happens across a lot of mythologies. Eagles, falcons and hawks are usually linked with storms because of their high flight preference, as well as their massive size and big appetite, so they naturally do create fear in us as well as a sense of respect. I think it’s a pretty healthy and human way to look at these massive birds, and as always, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were a case of mistaken identity when these ancient civilisations were around. 

I certainly wouldn’t want an eagle coming after my chips, I freak out when a seagull gives me a longer stare than usual with a seaside donut in my hand. 

For mythical comparisons, of course there are a few. We have the Roc from Arabic mythology, another classic large storm bird, although that one does seem slightly more antagonistic than this one. We also have the Thunderbird from Native American mythology, which lives up to its name and truly would be terrifying, punishing locals for disrespecting nature and the bird itself. We also have the Griffin in terms of looks from the British folklore space, but they don’t have the godly or storm touch about them - they just look slightly similar with the lion head and bird body.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there are a few bits here and there - but there’s not much for this monster. So I’ve filled this out with Storm Bird media that’ll tickle your fancy for this one.

For art, there aren’t really any classical pieces around this monster - but you can find them in stone and statues a lot. The most famous is Ninurta with his thunderbolts purses Anzu by Austen Henry Layard from 1853 - which is a gorgeous piece of work. Otherwise, have a look at independent artists this week for some really cool stormbird inspired artwork around Anzu.

In movies, we have; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Aladdin & The Magic Crane.

For TV, we have; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, One Piece, Digimon, Raideen, Hilde, Power Rangers: Mystic Force, Gargoyles & Aladdin: The Series.

In video games, we have ones such as; Devil May Cry 1 and 5, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, Don’t Starve, Fantasy Life, Final Fantasy 4, 7 & 8, Etrian Odyssey, Extrapower: Star Resistance, Genshin Impact, Heroes of Might and Magic, Horizon Zero Dawn, Warcraft 3, Zelda 3: The Adventure of Link, Thunderbird Strike, Pokemon, Mega Man 5, World of Warcraft, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Shin Megami Tensei & Terraria: Thorium.

My book recommendation this week I would say to have a look at Arabic Folktales: Collection of ancient tales of East by Elena Grand or Myths from Mesopotamia Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley for more ancient Arabic stories from this part of the world.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’m really sorry, and this has been a few episodes running now - but I have to say no to this one. This is because of my usual answer when it comes to oversized monsters, we just would have spotted them by now, and especially with the food that it would be eating and where it’s based, it would only make sense that we’d either weaponised or found and killed them all.

I love storm birds though, I’ve covered a few in the last few years and I’m genuinely a bit scared I might run out of them soon, which would be a travesty. The idea of a bird controlling the weather is awesome, especially one driven by their own greed like a magpie. Although I’m sure Anzu or any other thunderbird would be very upset at that comparison, I did also compare them to a seagull earlier I guess. 

I imagine Anzu to be this gorgeous dusky blue eagle with gold feathers glittering in the sunlight as it absolutely destroys the local population for not leaving it enough gifts, and that’s pretty cool. There is an Anzu in World of Warcraft who looks similar to that, so maybe that’s where I’m accidentally going.

But what do you think? Did Anzu roam the skies of Ancient Mesopotomia? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A really interesting monster this week. I loved the character arc of this monster through the myths, falling from grace into a total antagonistic god-thief - which immediately makes it so much more interesting and that it’s a kind of god itself - genius. 

Next week, we’re heading over to the beautiful island of Hawaii to look at some banana and fish loving dwarves. Get ready to leave out your building materials for the expert craftsmen, the Menehune next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.