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Lamashtu: Worst of The Mesopotamian Evil Gods
Coming in at number #1 above all other evil gods is the Mesopotamian goddess-demoness Lamashtu, the most terrible of all the female demons. She preyed on women during childbirth, kidnapped their newborns while they were breastfeeding, and then slew the babies to eat their flesh. Fittingly, her name is Akkadian for “she who erases.” However, as vile as eating children was, Lamashtu enacted various other evil deeds: she disturbed sleep and brought nightmares; she killed foliage and infested rivers and streams; she bound the muscles of men, caused pregnant women to miscarry, and brought disease and sickness.

Amulets like the one pictured above, depicting the lion-headed, bird-clawed Lamashtu, were worn by an expectant mother to defend herself against the demoness. As scholars also know from a cuneiform tablet in the Louvre, which preserves the ritual against Lamashtu, she was also bribed away with offerings of small feminine objects, such as combs and fibulae.

Despite her dark supremacy, Lamashtu had a weakness—the plague bringer, Pazuzu. Despite his malicious appearance in the film The Exorcist, Pazuzu was not the most benevolent demon in ancient Mesopotamia. Instead, he was summoned by women to protect them from true evil—Lamashtu. It is unknown whether Pazuzu did this because he felt sympathy for the expectant mothers or simply hated the demoness.

Description
Lamashtu: Worst of The Mesopotamian Evil Gods
Coming in at number #1 above all other evil gods is the Mesopotamian goddess-demoness Lamashtu, the most terrible of all the female demons. She preyed on women during childbirth, kidnapped their newborns while they were breastfeeding, and then slew the babies to eat their flesh. Fittingly, her name is Akkadian for “she who erases.” However, as vile as eating children was, Lamashtu enacted various other evil deeds: she disturbed sleep and brought nightmares; she killed foliage and infested rivers and streams; she bound the muscles of men, caused pregnant women to miscarry, and brought disease and sickness.

Amulets like the one pictured above, depicting the lion-headed, bird-clawed Lamashtu, were worn by an expectant mother to defend herself against the demoness. As scholars also know from a cuneiform tablet in the Louvre, which preserves the ritual against Lamashtu, she was also bribed away with offerings of small feminine objects, such as combs and fibulae.

Despite her dark supremacy, Lamashtu had a weakness—the plague bringer, Pazuzu. Despite his malicious appearance in the film The Exorcist, Pazuzu was not the most benevolent demon in ancient Mesopotamia. Instead, he was summoned by women to protect them from true evil—Lamashtu. It is unknown whether Pazuzu did this because he felt sympathy for the expectant mothers or simply hated the demoness.