I. Name

Rābiṣu (Sum. maškim) is formally an Akkadian participle from rabāṣu, ‘to crouch, lie in wait’. Evidence from Arabic suggests that Proto-Semitic contained two different roots: rbḏ and rbṣ. In Arabic the former is used with reference to small cattle and denotes their ‘crouching’ or ‘lying down’ (cf. OSA mrbḍn, ‘sheepfold’), though it can also mean ‘to lurk’. The latter has the second (negative) meaning only. The root is not used as a divine element in Semitic onomastica.

In Akkadian texts, the …