Tishpak (Tišpak) was a Mesopotamian god associated with the ancient city Eshnunna and its sphere of influence, located in the Diyala area of Iraq.
[5] From the Sargonic period onward, Tishpak competed with Ninazu in that location, and the latter finally ceased to be mentioned in documents from it after Hammurabi's conquest.
[10] However, it is now agreed that Ninazu's name means "Lord Healer,"[11] and that he was considered a god of the underworld and vegetation and sometimes a divine warrior, not a weather deity.
[18] An inscription of king Dadusha of Eshnunna indicates that Tishpak was regarded as one of the major gods in this city's sphere of influence, as he occurs right after Anu, Enlil, Sin and Shamash, and before Adad.
[21] The incantation series Šurpu highlights this feature, calling him "lord of the troops" and placing him in a sequence with Ningirsu and Zababa, who were both regarded as warlike deities.
[1] An Akkadian text from Eshnunna additionally characterizes him as "steward of the sea" (abarak ti'āmtim) and "fierce hero" (qurādum ezzum).
[29] Additionally, while Mesopotamians generally imagined the gods as fully anthropomorphic, he was on occasion described as green in color, possibly indicating he was assumed to have snake-like skin.
[3] Wilfred G. Lambert additionally proposed that Tishpak could be understood as a deity connected with Ninurta, based on his association with Ninazu, who shared many traits with the latter.
[63] Kamyar Abdi and Gary Beckman note that the locally used calendar shows affinity with that known from sites in the Diyala area, and on this basis link it with Eshnunna.
[63] While the number of personal names invoking gods from the Diyala area, especially Tishpak (Ibni-Tishpak, Lipit-Tishpak, Tishpak-Gamil, Tishpak-nasi, Tishpak-iddinam, Warad-Tishpak), is higher in documents from Sippar than from any other place in Babylonia proper,[27] the people bearing them were likely not native inhabitants of the city, but rather individuals who arrived from the kingdom of Eshnunna.
[20][64] There is evidence that Sippar was closely linked to Eshnunna, including economic texts, letters and the existence of greeting formulas invoking Shamash alongside Tishpak, rather than the tutelary god of nearby Babylon, Marduk.
[65] Tishpak is also mentioned in a letter addressed by the official Shamash-nasir to the king Zimri-Lim of Mari, relaying an oracle of Terqa's tutelary god Dagan to him.
[40] This section additionally mentions Ninazu, indicating it refers to Eshnunna, most likely showing that Hammurabi after his conquest of said city presented himself as fulfilling obligations associated with local gods to legitimize his rule.
[70] Tishpak appears in a ritual from the Utukku Lemnutu incantation series as one of the deities meant to protect a doorway, alongside the Sebitti, Lulal, Latarak, Mashtabba and Ishtar.
[72] One of the tablets from the library of Ashurbanipal narrates Tishpak's triumph over the monster Labbu, described as created by the sea, but designed by Enlil, seemingly to serve as punishment similar to the flood in the Atrahasis myth.
[74] As pointed out by Wilfred G. Lambert, the most similar composition is however a fragmentary myth which seemingly casts Nergal as the hero, in which he confronts a sea monster on the behalf of Enlil.
[75] Frans Wiggermann proposes that the Labbu myth served as an explanation for Tishpak's associations with serpentine creatures such as mushussu,[76] and as a justification for his installation as the tutelary god of Eshnunna.
[77] Lambert regards Wiggermann's theories about the myth as speculations due to the poor state of preservation of its only source making it impossible to interpret fully.