An urmahlullu (Sumerian language: ) is a fictitious and mythological lion-centaur hybrid creature. They are quadrupedal felines from the waist down and humanoids from the waist up, and have appeared in the folklore and myths of several cultures of antiquity, as well as in European art of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
The urmahlullu ("untamed lion man") is a mythical ancient Mesopotamian beast with a lion-centaur appearance. It was sometimes depicted as holding a club and wearing a cap of divinity. A guardian spirit, its image was used to ward against various malign demons, including the winged death demon Mukël rÃÂà ¡ lemutti and the lavatory demon à  ulak. Statues of Urmahlullu were sometimes placed outside lavatories, such as those in Nineveh's North Palace, or buried on either side of the lavatory door in homes wealthy enough to have lavatories on the premises.
Urmahlullu also appear on Assyrian cylinder seals.
Urmahlullu also appear in cylinder and square seals found in excavations of the Indus Valley city-state of Kalibangan. In one scene, a researcher describes a lion-centaur goddess wearing a head-dress with a long pendant whose body merges with that of the tiger. This goddess is associated with the later Hindu goddess of war.
At this time known as a sagittary, the lion-centaur appears as grotesques in prayer books, gargoyles in churches, and as aquamanilia. Etienne de Blois, later Stephen, King of England, featured sagittaries on his coat of arms and was known as "The Sagittary of London Park."
Lion-centaurs were featured in Minchiate, a card game of Florintine Italy in the early 16th century. The deck continued in use, for minchiate and for use as a tarot deck, into the 19th century.