Dimmeku

Dimmeku
Deity or demon associated with the underworld
Other namesDimku, Ḫedimku, Ḫedimmeku (disputed)[1]
ParentsNamtar and Hušbiša

Dimmeku (also read as Dimpimeku[2]), Dimku or Ḫedimku was a Mesopotamian goddess or demon associated with the underworld. From the Old Babylonian period on she was associated with Namtar, and in the god list An = Anum she appears as his daughter. It has been suggested that the similarly named Ḫedimmeku, who is attested in the same source as a daughter of Enki, was identical with her, though this conclusion is not universally accepted.

Name and character

The oldest variants of the name, ddìm-PI-ku (d.dìmdimme-ku) from the compositions The Death of Ur-Namma and The Death of Gilgamesh and ddìm-PI.ME-ku (d.dìmdimmeme-ku) from the Nippur god list, according to Dina Katz should be read as Dimmeku.[3] This conclusion is also supported by Jeremiah Peterson.[4] However, the readings Dimpiku and Dimpimeku can be found in older literature.[2] In the incantation series Udug-hul the form ddìm-kù, Dimku, occurs.[1] Later sources spell the name as dḫé-dìm-kù, which is presumed to be a variant or a result of textual corruption.[5]

Dina Katz proposes that the element dìm is used in the name Dimmeku in the meaning "figurine", and on this basis suggests that the name initially referred to a deified statue related to the worship of another deity, possibly Ningishzida, rather than to a distinct member of the Mesopotamian pantheon.[6] However, according to Andrew R. George it can be assumed that Dimmeku was already regarded as a distinct underworld deity at the time of composition of The Death of Ur-Namma and The Death of Gilgamesh.[7]

According to Jeremiah Peterson, it is possible to classify Dimmeku both as a deity and a demon.[4]

Associations with other deities

In the god list An = Anum (tablet V, line 203) Dimmeku is described as Namtar's daughter.[8] It is presumed that Namtar's wife Hušbiša was regarded as her mother.[9] Like her parents, she is included among the deities forming the court of Ereshkigal.[10] Namtar, Hušbiša and Dimmeku also occur in sequence in the exorcistic incantation Gattung II alongside other underworld deities, after Lugal-irra, Meslamtaea, Nergal, Ereshkigal, Ninazu, Ningirida, Ningishzida, Azimua and Geshtinanna, and before Nirda (deified punishment), Bitu, Šaršarbida, Etana, Gilgamesh, Lugalamašpae and Ugur.[11] However, while Dimmeku occurs in association with Namtar in Old Babylonian texts already, the specific tradition making them father and daughter is absent from sources predating An = Anum, and Dina Katz argues that based on her placement in The Death of Ur-Namma it can be assumed she was initially associated with Ningishzida.[5] In the aforementioned text, she is described as "standing by the side of Ningishzida".[7] Katz argues that this association is also reflected by her placement in the Old Babylonian Nippur god list.[5] She is the ninety-second entry, and occurs in a section focused on underworld deities,[4] between Azimua and Ninazu.[12]

Wilfred G. Lambert assumed that Namtar's daughter was identical with the goddess Ḫedimmeku (dḫé-dìm-me-kù),[13] who occurs in An = Anum (tablet 2, line 274) as a daughter of Enki.[14] He assumed that the same parentage is reflected by a reference to Dimmeku as daughter of the Apsû,[13] known from the incantation series Udug-hul.[1] Andrew R. George accepts Lambert's assumption, and notes the different parentages assigned to Dimmeku might reflect the phenomenon of occasional placement of deities associated with the underworld in Enki's court.[7] However, Markham J. Geller argues that the deity from tablet II of An = Anum despite bearing a similar name is unrelated to Dimmeku.[1]

In literary texts

The earliest known attestation of Dimmeku occurs in the poem The Death of Ur-Namma,[15] which might have been composed in the Ur III period, during the reign of Shulgi.[16] She is listed as one of the deities the eponymous ruler makes offerings to immediately after arriving in the underworld.[17] She received an object referred to as tudida, presumed to be an article of clothing.[18] She is attested in a similar context in the composition The Death of Gilgamesh[19] from the Old Babylonian period.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Geller 2015, p. 189.
  2. ^ a b Flückiger-Hawker 1999, p. 175.
  3. ^ Katz 2003, p. 395.
  4. ^ a b c Peterson 2009, p. 56.
  5. ^ a b c Katz 2003, p. 396.
  6. ^ Katz 2003, p. 396-397.
  7. ^ a b c George 2003, p. 861.
  8. ^ Lambert & Winters 2023, p. 196.
  9. ^ Lambert & Winters 2023, p. 338.
  10. ^ Lambert & Winters 2023, p. 38.
  11. ^ George 2003, p. 129.
  12. ^ Peterson 2009, p. 15.
  13. ^ a b Lambert 1972, p. 244.
  14. ^ Lambert & Winters 2023, p. 122.
  15. ^ Katz 2003, p. 370.
  16. ^ Katz 2003, p. 329.
  17. ^ Katz 2003, p. 357.
  18. ^ Katz 2003, p. 222.
  19. ^ Katz 2003, p. 360.
  20. ^ Katz 2003, p. 366.

Bibliography

  • Flückiger-Hawker, Esther (1999). Urnamma of Ur in Sumerian Literary Tradition (PDF). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. doi:10.5167/UZH-152507. ISBN 3-525-53342-X.
  • Geller, Markham J. (2015). Healing Magic and Evil Demons: Canonical Udug-hul Incantations. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9781614513094. ISBN 978-1-61451-309-4.
  • George, Andrew R. (2003). The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814922-0. OCLC 51668477.
  • Katz, Dina (2003). The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press. ISBN 1883053773. OCLC 51770219.
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (1972), "Ḫedimmeku", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 4, retrieved 2025-03-09
  • Lambert, Wilfred G.; Winters, Ryan D. (2023). An = Anum and Related Lists. Mohr Siebeck. doi:10.1628/978-3-16-161383-8. ISBN 978-3-16-161383-8.
  • Peterson, Jeremiah (2009). God lists from Old Babylonian Nippur in the University Museum, Philadelphia. Münster: Ugarit Verlag. ISBN 3-86835-019-5. OCLC 460044951.
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