I. Name

The identification of a deity Lel in the West Semitic world is a very difficult subject for the historian of religions. The existence of the deity as such has been questioned and the meaning and etymology of the name are a matter of debate.

The deity has been related to lyl-lylh ‘night’ (hence the conventional pronunciation ‘Lēl’) (Dietrich & Loretz 1980: 403), but also to the Akkadian lil(lu) known in Old and Standard Babylonian as a god and as a demon, meaning ‘fool, simple’ (Thureau-Dangin 1922, but cf. Kre…