Mukīl rēš lemutti, inscribed in cuneiform Sumerian syllabograms as (d)SAG.ḪUL.ḪA.ZA[nb 1] and meaning "he who holds the head of evil",[1] was an ancient Mesopotamian winged[2] leonine demon, a harbinger of misfortune associated with benign headaches and wild swings in mood, where the afflicted "continually behaves like an animal caught in a trap.
In the chapter on infectious diseases, tablet 22, lines 62 to 64 read: If he continually laughs, “hand” of mukīl rēš lemutti; he will die …[nb 2] If he rejoices and is terrified, “hand of" mukīl rēš lemutti; he will die… [nb 3]
[nb 5][7]The demon frequently appears in prescriptions such as those for the fashioning of a figurine for a neurological disorder caused by a pursuing ghost, where “The evi[l confusional stat]e (causing ghost or) mukīl rēš lemutti-demon [which] was set [on] (personal name) son of (personal name)–he is your husband.
You are given [t]o him (as wife).” In a burial ritual, where the malady is that “a person continually sees dead persons,” the text entreats the god Šamaš: “a ghost (or) mukīl rēš lemutti which was set on me and so continually pursues me – I am continually frightened and terrified (about him).” [8] The demon is a harbinger of evil in the apodoses of omens, such as in the šumma padānu ("the path") chapter of the Bārûtu compendium: If there are two Paths and the second is drawn at the rear of the Dyeing Vat; mukīl rēš lemutti (an evil demon)[nb 6][9]It makes an appearance in both Šumma ālu, the monumental compendium of terrestrial omens, and the Iškar Zaqīqu, dream omen series.
[10] The Religious Chronicle records a unique appearance of this demon in the bed chambers of Nabû as one of the inauspicious omens encountered during the troubled reign of Babylonian king Nabû-mukin-apli (978 – 943 BC).