In Akkadian mythology the Rabisu ("the lurker"; Sumerian Maškim, "deputy, attorney"), or possibly Rabasa, are vampiric spirits, daimons, or demons. The Rabisu are associated in mythology with the Curse of Akkad. A consistent translation of "Rabisu" is “Lingerers”. The Rabisu, whether intending malicious actions or not, linger around those who have been found wayward or to be rewarded by the deity Enlil. History of Scholarship The reason some people may feel as though Rabisu (Akkadian) or Robes (Hebrew) is an evil spirit or evil demon can be attributed to a series of books published in 1903-1904. Assyriologist Reginald Campbell Thompson published the seventeenth volume of Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets and a two-volume series Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia. In both of these works, the Rabisu is denoted as an evil spirit. However, this caused substantive debate and is still contested by scholars today. In 1903, the claim that the Rabisu was an evil demon spirit was contested by Hans Duhm in Die bösen Geister im Alten Testament in which he, along with Assyriologist Charles-Francois Jean were able to compare Hebrew texts to Akkadian demonology to attest that the Rabisu was not a predatory being. In this literature, despite the assertion that the Rabisu was not evil, the entity was still referred to as a "demon" in some classifications. Some have stuck to this notion without question. However, Duhm’s assertion has been challenged from multiple angles. Others who interpreted the Hebrew Bible also reached a separate conclusion that Robes ("demon" in Hebrew) is not the same entity or in some cases not even the same religion as the spirit of the Rabisu (Akkadian Demon). One of the main reasons people often mistake the Rabisu to be intrinsically evil is because of modern connotations of the word "demon". In ancient theology, a daimon had both an intrinsically evil and intrinsically good dichotomy. In vernacular usage, "demon" is often assumed to be evil or malicious. However this is a linguistic artifact. It is also understood by modern translation that Rabisu did not act without divine authority. That is, unless Enlil and his heavenly counsel specifically told or commanded the Rabisu to do something, they would not. Rather, they remained neutral spirits existing between the planes of heaven and earth. Rabisu in the Bible The book The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Theophilus Pinches describes the Rabisu as being "the seizer"