Lagamal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lagamal or Lagamar was a Mesopotamian deity associated chiefly with Dilbat (modern Tell al-Deylam),[1][2] but also worshiped in Terqa on the Euphrates and in Susa in Elam.[2]

Character[]

Lagamal's name means "no mercy" in Akkadian.[3] It is grammatically a negated infinitive according to Wilfred G. Lambert.[4] Attested spellings include dLa-ga-ma-al, dLa-ga-mal, dLa-qa-ma-al, dLa-qa-mar, dLa-ga-mar and dLa-ga-ma-ru.[3] It has also been proposed that the name dŠu-nu-gi known from two seal inscriptions is a Sumerian translation of Lagamal.[5]

Lagamal was associated with the underworld.[3][6] Wouter Henkelman describes him as fulfilling the role of advocatus diaboli in the beliefs pertaining to judgment of souls in the afterlife documented in texts from Susa.[7]

Gender[]

In the majority of known sources Lagamal is a male deity.[2] Today it is agreed that the only known location where Lagamal was definitely regarded as a goddess rather than a god was Terqa.[2] While Walter Hinz, an early researcher of Elamite sources, believed Lagamal to be female,[8] this conclusion is regarded as incorrect by Wilfred G. Lambert and other researchers.[8]

Associations with other deities[]

Lagamal was regarded as the son of Urash, the tutelary god of Dilbat (not to be confused with the earth goddess).[5] In a neo-Babylonian god list from the temple of Nabu in Babylon Lagamal appears after Urash and his wife Ninegal.[9]

The god list An-Anum equates Lagamal with Nergal.[5]

In Susa Lagamal was associated with Ishme-karab[5] and the underworld judge Inshushinak.[10][6] Nathan Wasserman refers to Lagamal and Ishme-karab as a couple.[11]

A late Assyrian copy of a Babylonian text refers to Lagamar as "king of Mari" (LUGAL ša Mā-riki[12]), despite the deity being only rarely attested in documents from that city.[13] Sources pertaining to travels of a statue of Lagamar from Terqa associate her[2] with the god Ikshudum, whose name is possibly derived from the phrase "he seized."[14] In the god list An-Anum the same name refers to one of the dogs of Marduk, but it is regarded as implausible that the other Ikshudum should also be understood as a subordinate of the tutelary god of Babylon.[14]

Cult[]

The oldest attestations of worship of Lagamar are a seal inscription from the Sargonic period.[3] Statues of this deity are attested in documents from Ur during the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur.[3] A temple dedicated to Lagamal was located in Dilbat,[15] and displays of personal devotion, such as using the formula "servant of Lagamal," are common in documents from this location.[16]

Terqa in Syria was another city where the worship of this deity was widespread.[2] A letter sent by Kibri-Dagan, governor of Terqa, to the king of Mari[17] records a cultic journey of a statue of Lagamal, alongside that of the god Ikshudum, to Terqa,[5][18] as well as sacrifices to both deities.[17] Similar celebrations in honor of other deities, such as Dagan[17] or Belet Nagar, are also known.[18] One letter from an unknown official requests the arrival of Lagamal and Ikshudum,[19] while another states that these deities can only travel at a time of peace, and need to be accompanied by a hundred soldiers.[20] An oracular inquiry from the Mari archives pertaining to the correct number of horns on Lagamar's crown is also known, with two, four and eight horns included as options.[21]

Theophoric names containing Lagamal's name are attested commonly in Dilbat as early as in the Old Babylonian period,[16] but were uncommon elsewhere in Mesopotamia, with the only known examples known from Sippar (seven attestations, one of them likely referring to a man from Dilbat), Larsa (two attestations), Mari (three attestations, two of them likely referring to the same person) and Kisurra (a single attestation).[16] One example of a name from Dilbat is Lagamal-gamil, "Lagamal is the one who spares.".[2] Objects which originally belonged to one man bearing it, a servant of the king Sumu-la-El,[22] were also found during excavations in Tilmen Höyük in Turkey.[23] It has been argued that Lagamal names from cities other than Dilbat can be assumed to indicate emigration to other parts to Mesopotamia, similar to Zababa names pointing at origin of the families of persons bearing them in Kish.[24]

In Elam[]

Outside Mesopotamia Lagamal is also attested in Elamite sources.[2] He was introduced to Elam in the second millennium BCE.[6] Like Adad, Shala,[25] Pinikir, Manzat and Nahhunte, he was worshiped mostly in the western part of this area, in the proximity of Susa.[26] One site associated particularly closely with him was Chogna Pahn West.[26] Some of his temples were examples of so-called siyan husame, "temples in the grove,"[27] which possibly had funerary functions,[28] though it has been pointed out that some of them belonged to deities with no such associations, such as Manzat or Simut.[29] One of such structures dedicated to him (jointly with Inshushinak) was located in Bit Hulmi.[30]

Multiple Elamite rulers mention structures dedicated to Lagamal in their inscriptions. Shilhak-Inshushinak according to his inscriptions restored a temple of Lagamal in Susa.[31] He also restored a siyan husame dedicated to him and Inshusinak at Chogha Pan West.[29] He also mentions that he undertook he repaired one of such houses of worship and dedicated it anew to Lagamar and Inshushinak, addressed as his gods.[32] Kutir-Nahhunte restored a hiel ("great gate") of Lagamar in Susa.[33]

An inscription of Shutruk-Nahhunte II, who reigned between 716 and 699 BCE, mentions an individual bearing the theophoric name Shilhana-hamru-Lagamal,[34] likely the son of Shilhak Inshushinak, younger brother of Hutelutush-Inshushinak, and possibly an Elamite ruler in his own right, whose reign presumably should be dated to the early eleventh century BCE.[35]

Ashurbanipal mentioned a statue of Lagamal among these he carried off from Susa as booty.[5] It is presently unknown if he continued to be worshiped in Elam after that event.[5]

Later relevance[]

It has been proposed that the name of the biblical Elamite king Chedorlaomer is a corrupted form of a hypothetical name with Lagamal as the theophoric element.[5]

A well established theory connects the Elamite group of Inshushinak, Lagamal and Ishme-karab with the later Zoroastrian belief that after death souls are judged by Mithra, Sraosha and Rashnu.[36] However, this view is not universally accepted, and it has been pointed out that while the names of both Sraosha and Ishmekarab are etymologically connected to hearing, the natures of Rashnu and Lagamal do not appear to be similar.[11] Nathan Wasserman additionally questions if these three gods can be strictly considered a triad in the same way as the Zoroastrian judges.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ van der Toorn 1995, p. 368.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 5.
  3. ^ a b c d e Lambert 1983, p. 418.
  4. ^ Lambert 1987, p. 163.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lambert 1983, p. 419.
  6. ^ a b c Henkelman 2008, p. 330.
  7. ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 61.
  8. ^ a b Jahangirfar 2018, p. 109.
  9. ^ Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 346.
  10. ^ Wiggermann 1997, p. 45.
  11. ^ a b c Wasserman 2019, p. 876.
  12. ^ Nakata 1975, p. 23.
  13. ^ Lambert 2016, pp. 71–72.
  14. ^ a b Lambert 1980, p. 45.
  15. ^ Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, pp. 5–6.
  16. ^ a b c Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 6.
  17. ^ a b c Matthews 1978, p. 155.
  18. ^ a b Feliu 2003, p. 123.
  19. ^ Sasson 2015, p. 255.
  20. ^ Sasson 2015, p. 268.
  21. ^ Sasson 2015, pp. 254–255.
  22. ^ Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 9.
  23. ^ Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 4.
  24. ^ Harris 1976, p. 152.
  25. ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 313.
  26. ^ a b Álvarez-Mon 2015, p. 19.
  27. ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 443.
  28. ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 442.
  29. ^ a b Potts 2010, p. 58.
  30. ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 444.
  31. ^ Potts 1999, p. 238.
  32. ^ Potts 2010, p. 503.
  33. ^ Potts 2010, p. 501.
  34. ^ Malbran-Labat 2018, pp. 470–471.
  35. ^ Potts 1999, p. 255.
  36. ^ Wasserman 2019, pp. 875–876.

Bibliography[]

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