Lagamal

Lagamal or Lagamar (Akkadian: "no mercy") was a Mesopotamian deity associated chiefly with Dilbat (modern Tell al-Deylam). A female form of Lagamal was worshiped in Terqa on the Euphrates in Upper Mesopotamia. The male Lagamal was also at some point introduced to the pantheon of Susa in Elam. Lagamal was regarded as an underworld deity, and in that capacity could be associated with Mesopotamian Nergal or Elamite Inshushinak. In Mesopotamian sources, his father was Urash, the tutelary god of Dilbat. In Susa, Lagamal formed a pair with Ishmekarab, a deity associated with law and justice, while documents from Mari indicate that in Terqa she was connected with the local god Ikšudum. Lagamal's name means "no mercy" in Akkadian. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, grammatical analysis indicates it is a negated infinitive. 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. The spellings ending with an r are exclusive to Neo-Assyrian sources. A further variant, dLa-ga-mil, Lagamil, "merciless," is known from a single incantation from Der, a city whose scribal tradition is poorly documented. It has also been proposed that the name dŠu-nu-gi known from two seal inscriptions is a Sumerian translation of Lagamal. Lugal-šunugia (Akkadian: Bel-lagamal), "the merciless lord", who occurs in the god list An = Anum (tablet VI, line 70) without an explanatory note, might represent an etymologically related epithet. Lagamal was associated with the underworld. 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. The possibility that Lagamal served as an accuser in the judgment of the dead is also accepted by Manfred Krebernik. Attempts were made to place Lagamal in the category of deities representing deified heroes or ancestors, to which Itūr-Mēr and Yakrub-El are often presumed to belong, but according to Jack M. Sasson similar as in the case of Latarak and Ilaba this assumption is incorrect.