In
Sumerian and
Akkadian mythology Pazuzu was the king of the
demons of wind, and son of the god
Hanbi. For the
Sumerians he also represented the southwestern wind, bearer of storms. An amulet representing the demon, often as a pendant, was used as a protection against him. In art he is depicted with the body of a man, the head of a man and the face of a
lion, talons instead of feet, two pairs of wings, the right hand upward, and the left hand downward; the position of the hands means respectively life and death (or creation and destruction).
- At the beginning of the movie The Exorcist (1973), when the priest who is later going to perform the exorcism is amid the Mesopotamian desert, the figure that threatens him seeming an illusion is Pazuzu.