Alû (Alu)

The Alû appears in Akkadian omen texts and exorcistic literature as one of the standard demons. It was described as a faceless entity — sometimes lacking a mouth, sometimes lacking legs — that crept over sleeping people like a blanket and pressed down, causing the symptoms of seizure and sleep paralysis. It was associated with specific disease manifestations and formed part of the established taxonomy of Babylonian medicine.

Textual summaries and early translations characterize Alû by minimalized bodily features and a covering mode of presence. Langdon's quoted passages describe the Alû as androgynous and the modern summaries note ancient descriptions that it 'has no mouth, lips or ears.' More than vivid physical form, Alû is depicted by formulae such as 'who covers (man) like a garment,' emphasizing an enveloping or overlaying presence in bed.

Primary attributes recorded in the sources are night-roaming assault and the ability to 'cover' or overwhelm sleepers. Texts say Alû 'covered' a man in his bed and 'by night overwhelmed' him; possession by Alû is said to result in unconsciousness or a coma and in language of 'poison and taint' coming into the body. The idea that Alû enters, suffocates, or possesses is drawn from these descriptions of effects (covering, overwhelming, causing unconsciousness) rather than from an explicit technical account of mechanism in the supplied excerpts.