AKA
He who holds the head of evil, he who offers misfortune
Expertise
headaches, mental illness, ghosts, ill omens
Description
Like so many Mesopotamian spirits, Mukīl rēš lemutti appeared as a winged, lionlike creature.
Story Notes
A fairly typical “demon of assorted problems,” MRL was associated with headaches, mood swings, and raving, where the afflicted “continually behaves like an animal caught in a trap.” He was associated with a host of bad omens, including a curse that makes someone continually see dead people and ghosts. Or perhaps MRL itself was a ghost? Many Mesopotamian demons were.
One of the more interesting aspects of this creature whas that he was associated with mukīl rēš daniqti, a spirit that offered good things and good omens. The two followed people around, in a sort of good prophetic cop/bad prophetic cop duality, offering blessings and curses. I suppose you couldn’t pick which one you got…or necessarily even knew which one was which.
Predictably, there’s a lot less written about the good guy than the bad guy.
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