Meskilak, lady of Dilmun
Meskilak was the principal goddess of Dilmun and the consort of the tutelary god Inzak. Her name, which Gianni Marchesi reads as Sumerian me-sikil-ak, 'she of the pure divine ordinances (me)', is matched by her distinctively local Failaka writing dPA.NI.PA, read phonetically Panipa. Inzak and Meskilak were worshipped together in the temple Ekarra ('house of the quay') on Failaka and are paired in the greeting formulae of the Old Babylonian letters between an inhabitant of Nippur and correspondents in Dilmun, where both deities are asked to protect the writer. In Mesopotamian scholarly tradition her name was reinterpreted as the homonym Ninsikila, and the title Nintilmun, 'lady of Dilmun', listed in the Inanna section of the god-list An = Anum, may also denote her; the same list assigns eight divine children to the couple Inzak and Meskilak. In the late god-list An = Anu sha ameli, where Inzak is equated with Nabu, Manfred Krebernik suggests Meskilak was correspondingly equated with Nabu's wife Tashmetum. While the dominant view, followed by al-Nashef and Marchesi, makes her Inzak's spouse, an alternative scholarly proposal instead understands her as his mother.
Domains
- purity sacred ordinances
- tutelary goddess of dilmun
Powers
- to embody the ritual purity of the land of Dilmun
- to guard the life of those who invoke her in letters and benedictions
Epithets
- Nintilmun
Relations
- spouse: Inzak, tutelary lord of Dilmun
Sources
- Khaled al-Nashef, 'The Deities of Dilmun', in Bahrain Through the Ages: The Archaeology, ed. H. A. Al Khalifa & M. Rice (London/New York: KPI, 1986), pp. 340-366.
- Gianni Marchesi, 'The Cuneiform Texts from Failaka', in Failaka/Dilmun: The Second Millennium Settlements, Vol. 6: Copper, Cuneiform Inscriptions and Other Finds, ed. F. Højlund (Aarhus University Press / Jutland Archaeological Society Publications 17:6, 2024).