Isimud

Isimud (also Isimu; ; ) was a Mesopotamian god regarded as the divine attendant (sukkal) of the god Enki (Ea). He was depicted with two faces. No references to temples dedicated to him are known, though ritual texts indicate he was worshiped in Uruk and Babylon. He was also incorporated into Hurrian religion and Hittite religion. In myths, he appears in his traditional role as a servant of Enki.

==Name and character== Isimud (cuneiform: dPAP.SIG7.NUN(.ME), dPAP.SIG7.NUN.ME.EZEN✕KASKAL; glossed i-si-mu in An = Anum) was the sukkal (divine “attendant”) of the god Enki (Ea). He was also known under the Akkadian name Usmû. Wilfred G. Lambert has noted that the latter resembles the adjective usumia, “two-faced”, which was used in omen texts, and on this basis concluded that the theonym was understood similarly, presumably through a folk etymology. A Hurrian form of the name, Izzumi, is also attested. It was originally considered uncertain if the names Isimud and Ara (dŠA) were two separate deities It has been argued that the latter was only his variant name. However, according to Julia Krul, based on Old Babylonian texts written in the Emesal dialect it can be now concluded that this name originally designated a female deity, who later came to be conflated with Isimud, possibly due to the influence of similar developments pertaining to Ninshubur.