depict Milcom. Several of these figures show features of the Ancient Egyptian god Osiris, namely the atef crown, suggesting that aspects of Osiris may have been adopted into Milcom's cult. An image of a four-winged scarab beetle has also been suggested to portray Milcom, however, this is inconclusive. Relationship to other Near-Eastern deities The name seems to derive from the root , meaning 'to rule'. On the basis of the similar iconography and the greater attestations of names containing the name El than Milcom, it has been suggested that Milcom may have been an epithet of El used in Ammon, or that Milcom was another god who gradually become associated with El in the same manner as Yahweh became associated with El in Israel. Scholar Collin Cornell has criticized attempts to argue that Milcom was the same deity as El or became syncretized with him as lacking evidence; he argues that similarities between El and Milcom in fact only show that El and Milcom "were I[ron ]A[ge] Levantine gods characteristic of their region and era." Gods with similar names are also attested. A god called mlkm is mentioned on a list of gods from Ugarit, one called Malkum is also attested on tablets from Drehem, and a god called Malik is attested from Nineveh, as well as theophoric names in the Mari tablets and Ebla tablets. The name is also similar to the potential god Moloch found in the Bible, and Moloch is once called the god of the Ammonites in the Masoretic text (1 Kings 11:6-7). The relations between these deities is uncertain; the description of Moloch as a god of the Ammonites may be a scribal error. As further evidence against identifying Milcom with Moloch, E. Puech notes that both are portrayed as having separate places of worship in Jerusalem in the Bible. References Sources Ammon Deities in the Hebrew Bible Phoenician mythology West Semitic gods Osiris El (deity)