For anyone who may have been wondering

[kateorman]

"Die Verschmelzung von verschiedenen tierischen Elementen wurde gewissermßen als normwidrig oder sogar als monströs empfunden and daher des öfteren bei furchtbaren dämonischen Gestalten verwendet. So ist z.B. die Totenfresserin aus Krokodilskopf, Löwenkorper und Nilpferdhinterteil zusammengesetzt."
And here's a picture:

Comments

[silverblue]

Is that Ammut?

Nice hippo butt!

[kateorman]

You are correct: it's the butt of Ammut. (Or Ammit, dammit.)

[leecetheartist]

Huh, sorry, unrelated, it just struck me how similar this monster is to the description of the Glatisant/Questing Beast.

Head of a serpent, body of a leopard, haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart.

[murasaki_1966]

Good point. Never realised that. D oyou think someone saw a drawing/painting of this while on crusade or something and described to the folks back home, and it worked its way into medieval literature and hence to The Once and Future King?

[kateorman]

That in turn reminds me of the sirrush:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/lcr/eod/img/fig09.jpg

[leecetheartist]

Goodness, you're right!

http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith.392332532

[kateorman]

That is an eagle-eyed question! She is indeed wearing a stripy head-dress, the better to disguise the awkward join between the Krokodilskopf and the Löwenkorper.

[pbristow]

It's a fourteen foot multi-coloured scarf, silly! =:o}

[tysolna]

Ich habe diesen Post um zwei Uhr Nachts gelesen und habe mich gefragt, ob ich wirklich Deutsch gelesen habe, oder getraeumt hab. Aber der Text ist immer noch Deutsch! :D

[kateorman]

Die Zitat ist von das "Lexikon der Ägyptologie". Deutsch ist die Lingua Franca von Ägyptologie!

[endis_ni]

"Who fails the test feeds the Devourer", right?

Come to think of it, wasn't it you first taught impressionable young readers that phrase?

[kateorman]

I decline to answer this question on grounds of only having just unzipped the old Word files and having to wait for Desktop to index them.