The Lama

As opposed to the ambiguous udug, the lama is clearly defined, at least in terms of its actions; with very few exceptions, the lama is a benevolent figure.^[40] Within incantations, the lama stands alongside the exorcist and provides both protection and support.

Beyond that role, the lama has a long history of appearances within personal names, the earliest of which are dated to the third millennium.^[41] ^{^[42] ^[43] ^[44] In further contrast to the udug, the lama is most often depicted as a female figure, with a long history of being identified as a deity in Mesopotamia, although one with distinctly protective qualities, and as a protective spirit, associated with an individual or a specific place.21 The oldest references to the lama come from Lagash, a city in southern Mesopotamia, which may suggest that this city is where the figure originated.22 Lagash itself possesses a religious tradition that, while connected to the broader traditions of Mesopotamia, retains its own unique aspects. The lama, however, quickly spread far beyond Lagash itself, to appear in texts from the broad sweep of Mesopotamia. The oldest of these early Lagash texts is from the twenty-fourth century BC; the text itself is a list of riddles, formatted as a simple list of canals, each accompanied by the name of a fish and the name of a snake, and the reader is meant to identify the city from these details. Here, the lama appears as the city's patron deity and is thus responsible for its protection: “its canal is the Lama-igi bar, its deity is the good lama (^dlama sa₆-ga).”2³ The writing of lama is also of importance: the lama is preceded by the determinative digir, a classifier indicating divinity (attached to gods and occasionally kings) and lama here is followed by the adjective “good,” sa₆-ga.^[45] ^{^[46] ^[47] ^[48] The udug, particularly when it appears benevolently in texts, may also be written with this divine sig- nifier preceding it.}
Although the lama is written with the divine determinative so often that attestations without it are unusual, even anomalous, the udug may be seen frequently with or without the digir determinative. Once the lama's role as a patron deity of a city, and thus responsible for its safekeeping, is established, we see an increasingly developed connection between the lama and protection in other texts in Mesopotamia, all of which reinforce this link between the protective power of the lama and its early role as a protective deity. In particular, the image of the lama as the protector and steward of cities is reinforced by the mention of specific temples that were built and dedicated to the lama in this early period of the late third millennium BC.25
From these first attestations as an individual goddess, one who was tasked with the protection and patronage of a particular city, the lama slowly develops an identity as a protective spirit who can serve other deities but is not always an independent goddess in her own right. While this pattern began to develop in these early attestations from the city of Lagash, it is also present later, seen in an Old Babylonian text where the lama appears as a spirit who is subservient to the goddess Baba. Although the lama in this text is not described as ‘good,' its function is clearly benevolent?⁶ Once again, the inclusion of the adjective is not required to inform or clarify the lama's intentions within the text: even without it, the lama can function benevolently. From here on, we see the lama developed as a protective figure that may be attached to an individual as easily as to a city, and whose removal or departure would cause that person harm or ill fortune. Texts known as city laments, which describe the destruction of urban centers, use the abandonment of a city by its protective spirits, one of which is the lama, as one of the final signs before the city's complete and total destruction: “[the city's] lama ran away; its lama (said) ‘hide in the steppe!'; [it] took unfamiliar paths.”2⁷ In this text, the lama removes itself not only from the city, but also from civilization entirely, retreating to the steppe or desert, the eden, a liminal area that is more often associated with monsters and demons.
In this vein as a benevolent spirit, the lama is one of the supernatural figures that commonly serves as protection for the exorcist, aiding him in his work, and can also be attached to individuals in literary texts—a tradition which begins early, as seen when it appears in a Sumerian literary epic featuring the exploits of the hero and king Lugalbanda: “(Lugalbanda's) good udug (^dudug sa₆-ga) hovered before him; his benevolent lama (^dlama sa₆-ga) walked behind him.”^[49] This text identifies the typical behaviour of protective spirits in Mesopotamia: to maintain a protected space around an individual, creating a space wherein no harm, be it of demonic origin or otherwise, can threaten whomever they are protecting. In incantations, their behavior is identical in that both udug and lama come to the aid of the exorcist. This furthermore leads us to one of the mutable qualities of the udug that serves as the next point to consider: although the udug is most closely associated with its demonic qualities, it can still act as a protective spirit, paired with the lama.
The lama is the product of its long history as a benevolent, apotropaic figure, first as a goddess in her own right, then as a protective spirit attached to a city or an individual. Moreover, the lama fulfills these roles in many different textual and artistic genres beyond incantations. As such, it is much more rooted in its role, and shifts into an antagonistic role only rarely, and only then in exceptional circumstances.}

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Source: Bhayro Siam, Rider Catherine (eds.). Demons and Illness from Antiquity to the Early-Modern Period. Leiden, Boston: Brill,2017. — xiv, 434 p.. 2017

The Lama

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