Editing Nergal (section)

===Wives and children===
Multiple goddesses are attested as Nergal's wife in various time periods and locations, but most of them are poorly defined in known documents.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|pp=219–220}} While Frans Wiggermann assumes that all of them were understood as goddesses connected to the earth,{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} this assumption is not shared by other assyriologists.{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|p=507}}{{sfn|Krebernik|1987|p=330}}

[[Laṣ]], first attested in an offering list from the [[Third Dynasty of Ur|Ur III period]] mentioning various deities from Kutha, was the goddess most commonly regarded as Nergal's spouse,{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} especially from the [[Kassites|Kassite]] and [[Middle Assyrian Empire|middle Assyrian]] periods onward.{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|pp=506–507}} She received offerings from neo-Babylonian kings alongside Nergal in Kutha.{{sfn|Da Riva|2010|p=47}} Her name is assumed to have its origin in a [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]], but both its meaning and Laṣ' character are unknown.{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|pp=506–507}} Based on the Weidner god list, [[Wilfred G. Lambert]] proposes that she was a medicine goddess.{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|p=507}} Couples consisting of a warrior god and a medicine goddess (such as [[Pabilsaĝ|Pabilsag]] and [[Ninisina]] or [[Zababa]] and [[Bau (goddess)|Bau]]) were common in [[Mesopotamian myths|Mesopotamian mythology]].{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=38}}

Another goddess often viewed as the wife of Nergal was [[Mamitu|Mammitum]].{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|p=507}}{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} Her name is homophonous with [[Mami (goddess)|Mami]], a goddess of birth known for example from the [[Nippur]] god list,{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=87}} leading some researchers to conflate them.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} However, it is generally accepted that they were separate deities,{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=87}} and they are kept apart in Mesopotamian god lists.{{sfn|Krebernik|1987|p=330}} Multiple meanings have been proposed for her name, including "oath" and "frost" (based on a similar [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word, ''mammû'', meaning "ice" or "frost").{{sfn|Krebernik|1987|p=330}} It is possible she was introduced in Kutha alongside Erra.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} In at least one text, a description of a New Year ritual from [[Babylon]] during which the gods of Kish, Kutha and [[Borsippa]] were believed to visit [[Marduk]] (at the time not yet a major god), both she and Laṣ appear side by side as two separate goddesses.{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=282}} In the Nippur god list Laṣ occurs separately from Nergal,{{sfn|Lambert|1983a|p=507}} while Mammitum is present right behind him, which along with receiving offerings alongside him in [[Ekur]] in the same city in the Old Babylonian lead researches to conclude a spousal relation existed between them.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=54}} She is also the wife of Erra/Nergal in the ''Epic of Erra''.{{sfn|George|2013|p=51}} The Middle Babylonian god list ''An = Anum'' mentions both Laṣ and Mamitum, equating them with each other, and additionally calls the goddess [[Adamma (goddess)#Mari|Admu]] ("earth") Nergal's wife.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} She is otherwise only known from personal names and a single offering list from Old Babylonian Mari.{{sfn|Nakata|1995|p=236}}

In third millennium BCE in Girsu, the spouse of Nergal (Meslamtaea) was Inanna's sukkal [[Ninshubur]],{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=207}} otherwise seemingly viewed as unmarried.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998c|p=495}} Attestations of Ninshubur as Nergal's sukkal are also known, though they are infrequent.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}}

According to the myth ''Nergal and Ereshkigal'' he was married to [[Ereshkigal]], the goddess of the dead.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} In god lists, however, they do not appear as husband and wife,{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=218}} though there is evidence that their entourages started to be combined as early as in the Ur III period.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|pp=218–219}} Ereshkigal's importance in Mesopotamia was largely limited to literary, rather than cultic, texts.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}}

Nergal's daughter was [[Tadmushtum]],{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} a minor underworld goddess first attested in [[Puzrish-Dagan|Drehem]] in the Ur III period.{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}} In an offering list she appears alongside Laṣ.{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}} Her name has Akkadian origin, possibly being derived from the words ''dāmasu'' ("to humble") or ''dāmašu'' (connected to the word "hidden"), though more distant cognates were also proposed, including [[Geʽez]] ''damasu'' ("to abolish", "to destroy", or alternatively "to hide").{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}} It has also been proposed that a linguistic connection existed between her and the [[Ugaritic]] goddess Tadmish (or [[Dadmish]], ''ddmš'' in the [[Ugaritic alphabet|alphabetic script]]), who in some of the [[Ugaritic texts]] occurs alongside [[Resheph]], though a copy of the [[Weidner god list]] from Ugarit however equates Tadmish with [[Shuzianna]] rather than Tadmushtum.{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}} In Neo-Babylonian lists of so-called "Divine Daughters", pairs of minor goddesses associated with specific temples likely viewed as daughters of their head gods, the "Daughters of E-Meslam" from Kutha are Dadamushda (Tadmushtum{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}}) and Belet-Ili.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|pp=112–113}}

While Frans Wiggermann{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=220}} and Piotr Michalowski{{sfn|Michalowski|2013|p=241}} additionally regard the god [[Shubula]] as Nergal's son, it is actually difficult to determine if such a relation existed between these two deities due to the poor preservation of the tablet of the god list ''An = Anum'' where Shubula's position in the pantheon was specified.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=54}} Shubula might have been a son of [[Ishum]] rather than Nergal.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=54}} He was an underworld god and is mostly known from personal names from the Ur III and Isin-Larsa periods.{{sfn|Michalowski|2013|p=241}} His name is most likely derived from the Akkadian word ''abālu'' ("dry").{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=54}} There is also clear evidence that he was regarded as Tadmushtum's husband.{{sfn|Krebernik|2013|p=398}}{{sfn|Michalowski|2013|p=241}}