Lahmu
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Lahmu is a deity from Akkadian mythology, first-born son of Apsu and Tiamat. He and his sister Lahamu were the parents of Anshar and Kishar, the sky father and earth mother, who begat the first gods. Lahmu was sometimes depicted as a snake, and sometimes as a bearded man with a red sash and six curls on his head. In Sumerian times Lahmu meant "the muddy one" and it was a title given to the gatekeeper of the Abzu temple of Enki at Eridu. In the latter form, he is called Lahmu the Hairy. He and Lahamu are never mentioned separately.
Symbolically, Lahmu referred to the silt islands that appeared where the Fresh water (Abzu) met the Salt water (Tiamat) of the Persian Gulf.
Some scholars have speculated that the name of Bethlehem actually originally contained a reference to a Canaanite form of Lahmu (in this context often transcribed as "Lakhmu"), rather than to the Canaanite word for "bread".
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