Lugala'abba or Lugalabba was a

Mesopotamian god Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...

associated with the sea, as well as with the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

. It has been proposed that he was worshiped in

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...

. He is also attested in various god lists, in a seal inscription, and in the incantation series ''

Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–1050 ...

''.

Name and character

Lugala'abba's name was written in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

as ''^d

lugal Lugal ( Sumerian: ) is the Sumerian term for "king, ruler". Literally, the term means "big man." In Sumerian, ''lu'' "𒇽" is "man" and ''gal'' "𒃲" is "great," or "big." It was one of several Sumerian titles that a ruler of a city-state could ...

-a-ab-ba''. It means "king of the sea" in Sumerian.

Stephanie Dalley Stephanie Mary Dalley FSA (''née'' Page; March 1943) is a British Assyriologist and scholar of the Ancient Near East. She has retired as a teaching Fellow from the Oriental Institute, Oxford. She is known for her publications of cuneiform te ...

tentatively proposes the alternate translation, "king of the

Sealand SeaLand, a division of the Maersk Group, is an American intra-regional container shipping company headquartered in Miramar, Florida with representation in 29 countries across the Americas. The company offers ocean and intermodal services using ...

." In addition to being a deity of the sea, Lugala'abba was associated with the

Wilfred G. Lambert Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Early life Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was edu ...

pointed out making a connection between sea and death is not uncommon in Mesopotamian literature, for example the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh ...

'' uses the phrases "waters of death" and "ocean," ''a-ab-ba'', interchangeably, and noted a similar association is also present in the

Ugaritic texts The Ugaritic texts are a corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered since 1928 in Ugarit (Ras Shamra) and Ras Ibn Hani in Syria, and written in Ugaritic, an otherwise unknown Northwest Semitic language. Approximately 1,500 texts and fragments ...

, in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

, and in

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

's ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 10 ...

'', where the personified

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

is a daughter of

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods a ...

. However, he also notes the most detailed known description of Lugala'abba occurs in an

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

incantation which instead calls him "the exorcist of the gods, the pure god" and implores him to "cast a spell of life."

Associations with other deities

The goddess NIN-ĝa'uga was regarded as Lugala'abba's spouse. Her name can be translated as "queen of the dead" or, based on variant orthographies, "mistress of the house of the dead." Glosses in various explanatory texts indicate that the NIN sign in her name was read as ''ereš'' or ''égi'', rather than ''nin''. Wilfred G. Lambert maintained that she was the same deity as

Ninmug Ninmug or Ninmuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. She was associated with artisanship, especially with metalworking, as evidenced by her epithet ''tibira kalamma'', "metalworker of the land." She could also be regarded as a goddess of birth and assist ...

, but according to Gianni Marchesi they were only confused with each other. In the god list ''

An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...

'' the former appears alongside Lugala'abba, apart from the latter, who is paired with

Ishum Ishum (Išum; possibly the masculine form of Akkadian ''išātum'', "fire") was a Mesopotamian god of Akkadian origin. He is best attested as a divine night watchman, tasked with protecting houses at night, but he was also associated with variou ...

. It also equates her with

Ninkarrak Ninkarrak ( akk, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒋼𒀀𒊏𒀝, '' dnin-kar-ra-ak'') was a goddess of medicine worshiped chiefly in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. It has been proposed that her name originates in either Akkadian or an unidentified substrate lang ...

, while the ''Emesal Vocabulary'' - with Gula. Lambert also presumed that Abzumaḫ, "exalted

Apsu The Abzu or Apsu ( Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising qualit ...

," was a female deity who functioned as Lugala'abba's spouse in

Attestations

According to Wilfred G. Lambert, the worship of Lugala'abba is attested in a source from

. A

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

to deities named ''^dlugal-ab-a'' and ''^dabzu-maḫ'' existed in this city during the reign of

Samsu-iluna Samsu-iluna (Amorite: ''Shamshu''; c. 1750–1712 BC) was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon, ruling from 1750 BC to 1712 BC (middle chronology), or from 1686 to 1648 BC ( short chronology). He was the son and successor of ...

. The writing ''^dlugal-ab-a'' also occurs in the Nippur god list. Manfred Krebernik assumes that it represents an older orthography of Lugala'abba's name. However, Jeremiah Peterson argues that this view is incorrect, and suggests this writing refers to a separate god, Lugaleša. Lambert considered the view that ''^dlugal-ab-a'' was a different deity, as well as the reading Lugaleša ("lord of the dwelling"), to be erroneous, and described the latter as "an improbable and unparalleled deity." Active worship of Lugala'abba is not otherwise attested from any other city, though an

Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Camb ...

seal from the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

collection designates the owner as a "slave of Lugala'abba" (''ìr ^dlugal-a-ab-ba''). In the god list ''

'', Lugalabba appears twice, in the end of tablet V, and in tablet VI in a group of

theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), "god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and u ...

s beginning with the word ''lugal''. A different god list, which apparently only contains the names of gods associated with the underworld, places Lugala'abba after a damaged entry and before Lugal-Ḫubur, a god whose name refers to an underworld river, Ḫubur. Lugala'abba is also present in a list of '' Asakku'' demons, in which he occurs alongside Equ, Muḫra, Kūšu, Lugaledinna, Sakkut,

Šulak In the Babylonian magico-medical tradition, Šulak is the lurker of the bathroom or the demon of the privy. Šulak appears in the Babylonian ''Diagnostic Handbook'' (Tablet XXVII), in which various diseases are described and attributed to the "han ...

and

Latarak Latarak (Lātarāk) was a Mesopotamian god. He was most likely depicted as a figure clad in a lion's skin, or perhaps as a lion-like monster. He was regarded as a protective deity, invoked to defend doorways and ward off diseases. He was closely a ...

. It is presumed that his inclusion in it was based on his connection to the underworld. However, he is absent from a number of other similar documents which list many other members of this group. In the incantation series ''

'', Lugala'abba opens a sequence of invoked deities which consists of Lugalidda,

Laguda Laguda (''dla-gu-da'', rarely ''dla-gù-dé'') was a Mesopotamian god most likely associated with the Persian Gulf. Character It is assumed that Laguda was a god of the sea, specifically the Persian Gulf. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, the possib ...

Inzak Inzak (also Enzag, Enzak, Anzak; in older publications Enshag) was the main god of the pantheon of Dilmun. The precise origin of his name remains a matter of scholarly debate. He might have been associated with date palms. His cult center was Aga ...

and

Meskilak Meskilak or Mesikila was one of the two main deities worshiped in Dilmun. The other well attested member of the pantheon of this area was Inzak, commonly assumed to be her spouse. The origin of her name is a subject of scholarly dispute. She is a ...

. Lugalidda, "king of the river," was a similar god frequently associated with him, Laguda was a sea god associated with the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

, and Inzak and Meskilak were a pair of deities from

Dilmun Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual evidence, it was l ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *{{cite book, last=Peterson, first=Jeremiah, title=God lists from Old Babylonian Nippur in the University Museum, Philadelphia, url=https://www.academia.edu/27631505, publisher=Ugarit Verlag, publication-place=Münster, year=2009, isbn=978-3-86835-019-7, oclc=460044951 Mesopotamian gods Sea and river gods Underworld gods