Lagamal

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

Character

Lagamal's name means "no mercy" in Akkadian.[3] It is grammatically a negated infinitive according to Wilfred G. Lambert.[4]

Lagamal was associated with the underworld.[3][5] 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.[6]

Despite Lagamal's character, the theophoric name Lagamal-gamil, "Lagamal is the one who spares," is attested on seals from Dilbat.[2]

Gender

In the majority of known sources Lagamal is a male deity.[2]

Walter Hinz, an early researcher of Elamite sources, believed Lagamal to be female,[7] but this conclusion is regarded as incorrect by authorities in the field such as Wilfred G. Lambert.[7]

The only known location where Lagamal was regarded as a goddess rather than a god was Terqa.[2]

Association with other deities

Lagamal was regarded as the son of Urash, the tutelary god of Dilbat (not to be confused with the earth goddess).[8] 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.[8]

In Susa Lagamal was associated with Ishme-karab[8] and the underworld judge Inshushinak.[10][5]

Cult

A temple dedicated to Lagamal was located in Dilbat,[11] and displays of personal devotion, such as using the formula "servant of Lagamal," are common in documents from this location.[12]

Terqa in Syria was another city where the cult of this deity was widespread.[2] A letter sent by Kibri-Dagan, governor of Terqa, to the king of Mari[13] records a cultic journey of a statue of Lagamal, alongside that of the god Ikshudum, to Terqa,[8][14] as well as sacrifices to both deities.[13] Similar celebrations in honor of other deities, such as Dagan[13] or Belet Nagar, are also known.[14]

Statues of Lagamal are attested in documents from Ur during the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur.[3]

Theophoric names containing Lagamal's name are attested commonly in Dilbat as early as in the Old Babylonian period,[12] but were uncommon elsewhere in Mesopotamia, with the only known examples attested in Sippar (7 attestations; 1 likely referring to a man from Dilbat), Larsa (2), Mari (3 attestations, 2 of them likely referring to one person) and Kisurra (1).[12] Objects which originally belonged to a man bearing the name Lagamal-gamil, a servant of the king Sumu-la-El,[15] were also found during excavations in Tilmen Höyük in Turkey.[16] 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.[17]

A late Assyrian copy of a Babylonian text refers to Lagamar as "king of Mari" (LUGAL ša Mā-riki[18]), despite the deity being only rarely attested in documents from that city.[19]

In Elam

Outside Mesopotamia Lagamal is also attested in Elamite sources from Susa.[2] He was introduced there in the second millennium BCE.[5] He was worshiped in a so-called siyan husame,[20] a type of temples which likely had funerary functions.[21] One of such structures dedicated to him (jointly with Inshushinak) was located in Bit Hulmi.[22]

Shilhak-Inshushinak according to his inscriptions restored a temple of Lagamal in Susa.[23]

An inscription of Shutruk-Nahhunte II mentions an individual bearing the theophoric name Shilhana-hamru-Lagamal,[24] likely a younger brother of king Hutelutush-Inshushinak and possibly an Elamite ruler in his own right.[25]

Ashurbanipal mentioned a statue of Lagamal among these he carried off from Susa as booty.[8]

Later relevance

It has been proposed that the name of the biblical Elamite king Chedorlaomer is a corrupted form of a hypothetical theophoric name invoking Lagamal.[8]

References
  1. van der Toorn 1995, p. 368.
  2. Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 5.
  3. Lambert 1983, p. 418.
  4. Lambert 1987, p. 163.
  5. Henkelman 2008, p. 330.
  6. Henkelman 2008, p. 61.
  7. Jahangirfar 2018, p. 109.
  8. Lambert 1983, p. 419.
  9. Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 346.
  10. Wiggermann 1997, p. 45.
  11. Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, pp. 5–6.
  12. Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 6.
  13. Matthews 1978, p. 155.
  14. Feliu 2003, p. 123.
  15. Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 9.
  16. Marchesi & Marchetti 2019, p. 4.
  17. Harris 1976, p. 152.
  18. Nakata 1975, p. 23.
  19. Lambert 2016, pp. 71–72.
  20. Henkelman 2008, p. 443.
  21. Henkelman 2008, p. 442.
  22. Henkelman 2008, p. 444.
  23. Potts 1999, p. 238.
  24. Malbran-Labat 2018, pp. 470–471.
  25. Potts 1999, p. 255.

Bibliography
  • Behrens, Herman; Klein, Jacob (1998), "Ninegalla", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2021-08-12
  • Feliu, Lluís (2003). The god Dagan in Bronze Age Syria. Leiden Boston, MA: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-13158-3. OCLC 52107444.
  • Harris, Rivkah (1976). "On Foreigners in Old Babylonian Sippar". Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. Presses Universitaires de France. 70 (2): 145–152. JSTOR 23282311. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  • Henkelman, Wouter F. M. (2008). The other gods who are: studies in Elamite-Iranian acculturation based on the Persepolis fortification texts. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. ISBN 978-90-6258-414-7.
  • Jahangirfar, Milad (2018). "The Elamite Triads: Reflections on the Possible Continuities in Iranian Tradition". Iranica Antiqua. 53: 105–124. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (1983), "Lāgamāl", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2021-08-11
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (1987), "Lulal/Lātarāk", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2021-10-04
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (2016). Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology: Selected Essays. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-153674-8. OCLC 945892683.
  • Malbran-Labat, Florence (2018). "Elamite Royal Inscriptions". The Elamite World. Routledge. pp. 464–480. doi:10.4324/9781315658032-24. ISBN 9781315658032.
  • Marchesi, Gianni; Marchetti, Nicoló (2019). "A babylonian official at Tilmen Höyük in the time of king Sumu-la-el of Babylon". Orientalia. 88 (1): 1–36. ISSN 0030-5367. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  • Matthews, Victor H. (1978). "Government Involvement in the Religion of the Mari Kingdom". Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. Presses Universitaires de France. 72 (2): 151–156. JSTOR 23282224. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  • Nakata, Ichiro (1975). "A Mari Note: Ikrub-El and Related Matters". Orient. The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan. 11: 15–24. doi:10.5356/orient1960.11.15. ISSN 1884-1392.
  • Potts, Daniel (1999). The archaeology of Elam: formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian state. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-48961-7. OCLC 813439001.
  • van der Toorn, Karel (1995). "Migration and the Spread of Local Cults". Immigration and emigration within the ancient Near East: Festschrift E. Lipiński. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oriëntalistiek. ISBN 90-6831-727-X. OCLC 33242446.
  • Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1997). "Transtigridian Snake Gods". In Finkel, I. L.; Geller, M. J. (eds.). Sumerian Gods and their Representations. ISBN 978-90-56-93005-9.
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