Editing Nergal (section)

===Meslamtaea and related logograms===
{{main|Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea}}
Meslamtaea, "he who has come out of Meslam", was originally used as an alternative name of Nergal in the southern part of [[Lower Mesopotamia]] up to the [[Ur III period]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}}  It has been proposed that it was euphemistic and reflected the fact that Nergal initially could not be recognized as a ruler of the underworld in the south due to the existence of [[Ninazu]] (sometimes assumed to be the earliest Mesopotamian god of death{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=19}}) and [[Ereshkigal]], and perhaps only served as a war deity.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} Meslamtaea with time also came to be used as the name of a separate deity.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} As attested for the first time in a hymn from the reign of [[Ibbi-Sin]], he formed a pair with Lugalirra.{{sfn|Lambert|1987a|p=144}} Due to the connection between Nergal and these two gods, who could be regarded as a pair of twins, his own name could be represented by the logogram <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.TAB.BA and its variant <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.MAŠ,{{sfn|Krebernik|2016|p=352}} both of them originally meaning "(divine) twins".{{sfn|Krebernik|2016|p=351}} <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.MAŠ is attested in [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]] [[theophoric name]]s as a spelling of Nergal's name, though only uncommonly.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} However, the god designated by this logogram in one of the [[Amarna letters]], written by the king of [[Alashiya]], is most likely [[Resheph]] instead.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=246}}