Laguda

It is assumed that Laguda was a god of the sea, specifically the Persian Gulf.[2] According to Wilfred G. Lambert, the possibility that Laguda was a god of the sea is supported by his frequent association with other deities of such character.[3] Sirsir, a god mentioned alongside him in Marduk's Address to the Demons, was associated with sailors,[3] and it has been proposed that he can be identified as the so-called "boat god" on cylinder seals.[4] Laguda is also referenced in the incantation series Šurpu, where he is listed alongside the river god Lugalidda and the sea god Lugala'abba.[3]

The currently unpublished god list Anšar = Anum refers to Laguda as a name of Marduk, and associates him with Dilmun.[3] It is possible that he also appears in an enumeration of Marduk's names in another list.[5] However, the text Marduk's Address to the Demons attests that they were separate deities:[6]

I am Asallulḫi whom Sirsir nominates in the upper sea, I am Asallulḫi whom Laguda exalts in the lower sea[3]

Laguda's cult center was most likely the city Nēmed-Laguda,[7] known from sources from the first millennium BCE.[8] Its precise location is not known, but based on mentions in ancient texts it can be assumed that it was close to cities such as Eridu, Larsa, Uruk and Ur.[8] It was also associated with Ea according to a neo-Babylonian royal letter.[7] At one point, gods of Nēmed-Laguda were returned by Sargon II.[8]

Laguda is also attested in two theophoric names from Nippur from the earlier Kassite period,[9] Tukulti-Laguda and Burra-Laguda.[3] The element burra- in the latter name is Kassite,[10] making Laguda one of the deities who appear in Kassite theophoric names despite belonging to the Mesopotamian, rather than Kassite, pantheon.[11] His name was in this case written with a divine determinative (dingir), a cuneiform sign designating divine names,[10] unlike the names of any Kassite deities other than Shuqamuna and Shumaliya.[12]