Dimmeku

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.

Dimmeku
Deity or demon associated with the underworld
Other names	Dimku, Ḫedimku, Ḫedimmeku (disputed)[1]
Parents	Namtar and Hušbiša

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.dìmdimme^me-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]