Page 265 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879
591
210 TIIE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.

Mercury or Inzalc, whoso wife, in Babylonia, was known by
the naino of 1 asmit j but in tlio Inscriptions she is named
Lakhamun, >->~y and is identified with
Zini-panit, who was the wife of Mcrodach, and the tutelar
Goddess of Babylon, another instance of the same confusion
between the wife of Mcrodach and tlio wife of Nebo or
Mercury occurring in tlio name of Pap-nun, which belonged
alike to Zini-panit and to Tasmit.1 Now the precise form of
Lakhamun is not found in any other passage of the Inscrip­
tions excepting that which gives this name to the Venus of
Bahrein, a circumstance which is, to say the least of it, re­
markable, considering the extent and completeness of the
various mythological lists,2 whilst the name, however, of
Lakliamu, which is almost identical, is of common occurrence,
belonging, as is well known from the Creation tablets aud
other sources, to tlio “ great mother ” or “ fcmalo principle
of nature,” and thus perfectly suiting tlio Ziru-panit of
Nidukki. I am disposed then to think that Lakliamu and
Lakhamun arc variant forms of the same name, and that the
tutelar Goddess of Bahrein was in fact the samo divinity,

1 For the benefit of Assyriau 6tudonts I quoto tlio various passages wlicro
tlicso equivalent readings severally occur: (a) >->"1 ===
®r s= s: s=?i. !* m <h„ ,
Lakhamun = Ziru-
panil of Nidukki, B.M.I. vol. ii. j). 64, 1. 63, restored from duplicate copy.
^ or >->~y ^^y *.*. Lakhama or Zakhamu,
as tlio ‘female principle of Nature’ (samo as Anata, >vifo of Ann), B.M.I. vol. ii.
p. 64, 1. 9, vol. iii. p. 69, 1. 16, and Creation Tablot, 1.10. (fl) >i^- £=y yy
Pap-nun, gloss for >->-y y>~ Tasmit, B.M.I. vol. ii. p. 48, 1.
39, but^y >jy.yy ►-►-y t( Pap-nun (great giver?) of heaven and
earth” is a namo for Ziru-panit, B.M.I. vol. ii. p. 64, 1. 54, restored from
duplicate, and is applied to tho samo Goddess 8s wile of Mcrodach, B.M.I. vol.
iv. p. 21, 1. />2 ; while in an unpublished list11 Pap-nun of heaven and earth ” is
wire of ^ ^ ^. j^y jryyy <jd («—y -eld

^yyy^ . *tho proclnlmor of good fortune,* who was a more secondary
form of 'Nebo, or Mercury, sco B.M.I. yoI. iii. p. CG, col. 3, 1. 30, and col. 7,
1. 29, and B.M.I. vol. iv. p. 60, 1. 43.
3 If Lakh-amun wero a genuino reading, it might bo explained ns ‘ tho messengor
of Ammon1 (-yyy< fokh^ptkkal), and would seem to havo been borrowed from
Egypt, like 7IwvJ, Par, Parra, aud eovoral othor names common to Egyptian
and Babylonian divinities; but I cannot youturo to gonoralizo on a siuglo oxamplo.