Aqrabuamelu (Scorpion Man)

Aqrabuamelu, also known as girtablilu, are described to have the head, torso, and arms of a man and the body of a scorpion. Scorpion Men are featured in several Akkadian language myths, including the Enûma Elish and the Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

They were first created by the Tiamat in order to wage war against the younger gods for the betrayal of her mate Apsu. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, they stand guard outside the gates of the sun god Shamash at the mountains of Mashu. These give entrance to Kurnugi, the land of darkness. The scorpion men open the doors for Shamash as he travels out each day, and close the doors after him when he returns to the underworld at night. They also warn travellers of the danger that lies beyond their post. Their heads touch the sky, their "terror is awesome" and their "glance is death". This meeting of Gilgameš, on his way to Ūta-napišti, with the Scorpion-folk guarding the entrance to the tunnel is described in Iškār Gilgāmeš, tablet IX. One famous image found on a relief carving pictures a scorpion man aiming with a bow and arrow.

Mythical or Legendary Creatures

Some mythical creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and have been believed to be real creatures, for example the dragon, the unicorn, and the griffin. Others were based on real encounters, originating in garbled accounts of travelers' tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, which supposedly grew tethered to the earth (and was actually a type of fern), or the Sukotyro, a elephant- and ox-like quadruped from Java, included in George Shaw's Zoology based on just one sighting in 1563.

Some creatures downplayed as just storytelling, have been rediscovered and found to be real in recent times, such as the Giant Squid (the Kraken). In Africa, Natives of the Congo told European visitors of an animal that looked like a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. While the visitors assumed the stories were just folk tales, in 1901, Sir Harry Johnston brought back pelts that proved the creature, which we now call the okapi, is real.

Modern researchers of mythology and folklore, like Adrienne Mayor, have theorized that some legendary mythical creatures were based on finds of real animal fossils by ancient civilizations. Dragon tales have been theorized to be based on finds of dinosaur fossils. Ancient miners all over the world probably found fossil skeletons of the extinct giant lizards in deep mines, leading to globally similar stories of dragons dwelling in caves.