Namtar

Namtar () was a figure in ancient Mesopotamian religion who, depending on the context, could be regarded both as a minor god and as a demon of disease. He is best attested as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld. Like her, he was not the object of active worship, though references to it are made in literary texts, and additionally some incantations entrust him with keeping various other malevolent forces in the underworld.

==Character and functions== Namtar's name means "fate" in Sumerian. It can be differentiated from the ordinary word "fate" in Sumerian texts due to being preceded by the dingir sign, so-called divine determinative, used to identify the names of deities. The same name was used in Akkadian, written as dnam-ta-ru. Jacob Klein notes that true to his name, Namtar was most likely understood as the personification of unavoidable fate, implicitly understood as death. Aicha Rahmouni compares the role of Namtar in Mesopotamian beliefs to that played by Mot, the personified death, in Ugaritic texts.