I__1_______________X___ _____·__i____ IN THE SOLD AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM; AND AT LONGMANS & Co., 39, PATERNOSTER ROW; BERNARD QUARITCH, 15, PICCADILLY; ASHER & Co., 13, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN; KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., DRYDEN HOUSE, 43, GERRARD STREET, SOHO; AND HENRY FROWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN CORNER, LONDON. I9o6. [ALL RIGHTS RESER VED.] CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &c., BRITISH MUSEUM. PART XXIII. (50 Plates.) PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES.
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BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &c., - ETANAetana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/17072.pdfPart XXIII. of "Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc.," contains texts from twenty-five fragments
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HENRY FROWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN CORNER,
LONDON.
I9o6.
[ALL RIGHTS RESER VED.]
CUNEIFORM TEXTS
FROM
BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &c.,
BRITISH MUSEUM.
PART XXIII.
(50 Plates.)
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES.
LONDON:
HARRISON AND SONS,
PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
Part XXIII. of "Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc.," containstexts from twenty-five fragments of the Kouyunjik Collection, which have beenrejoined and now form nine tablets. These texts are magical in character, andwere written in the Assyrian script for the Royal Library of king Ashur-bani-palat Nineveh. Though the copies here published are made from tablets not olderthan the seventh century before Christ, the compositions themselves have beenhanded down from remote periods, and are based on the traditional lore of theancient Sumerian priests and magicians who practised their craft in Mesopotamiabefore the Semitic Babylonians entered their country, probably between 5000 and4000 B.c. The most interesting of the three series found in the texts is that whichis entitled " Incantations against the Appearance of the Dead." The compositionsin it were intended to lay the ghosts of the dead, whose spirits, for variousreasons, were unable to enter the underworld and therefore returned to the earthas ghosts. Here they haunted their living relatives, or any stranger who crossedtheir path or fell into their power. By the recital of the magical formulae herepublished, and by the performance of the ceremonies here prescribed, the officiatingpriest or magician laid the ghosts and freed the haunted man from his terrors.The other two series contain incantations and directions for the performance ofceremonies intended to benefit men smitten with various forms of sickness.
The copies have been made by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson, M.A., and theDescriptive Index, etc., by Mr. L. W. King, M.A., F.S.A., Assistants in theDepartment.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES,
BRITISH MUSEUM.
[ray 12, I90o6.
A 2
I.
DESCRIPTIVE INDEX.
NO. PLATE.
I-3. Three tablets inscribed with a series of short prayers and incantations to berecited by a priest or magician for the benefit of sick men. The incantationsare followed by rubrics giving detailed directions with regard to the magicalceremonies to be performed at the time the incantation was recited, to whichthey are attached. The fragments K. 2432 + S. I899 and K. 2473 appear tobe parts of the same tablet, the former preserving the top of the tablet, thelatter its bottom left-hand corner. It is inscribed with a single column ofwriting on each side, and thus differs from the other tablet of the same classhere published (K. 2453 + 8I-2-4, I94), which is a larger tablet inscribed withtwo columns of writing on each side. No colophon has been preserved whichgives the title of the magical work to which the tablets belonged or the numbersof the tablets themselves, but the separate incantations are followed by the title
.- Ae )- >.- ar .>-- 4, -<, INIM-INIM-MA SA-GAL-LA-KAM, which servesto mark them off as a separate class. [Nos. 2432 + S. I899, K. 2473, andK. 2453 + 8I-2-4, 194] ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... I-I4
4. A tablet inscribed with a series of prayers and incantations intended to cure menhaunted by spirits of thle dead. The majority of the prayers are addressed tothe Sun-god (Shamash), who as "the King of the Ghosts," shar ekimm6e isinvoked by the priest to exert his power on behalf of the haunted man. Oneof the incantations is of particular interest, as it was intended to lay the ghostsof a man's near relatives. While the priest or Inagician sprinkled pure waterand placed offerings and made libations in the sunlight, he recited on behalfand in the person of the haunted man the following formula: "O Shamash,King of Heaven and Earth, Judge of the Upper and the Lower World, Lord ofthe dead, Director of the living, O Shamash, as for the dead who haunt andafflict me, whether they be the ghost of my father or of my mother, or the ghostof my sister or of my brother, let them accept this (i.e., the offering) and leaveme in peace !" (s/zitz (ilu)Shamas/ shar shame tu irsiti daia/z elzlti(pl) ushzaphlti(pl) bel (amelu)mtti mur-te-du-u (amelu)balti (ilu)S/hamash dth"ti(pl)sha ish-shak-nu-nim-ma SHI-SHI(ru) lu ekimvnmu abi-ia zu uzimmi-ia lu ekimmuakhi-ia u akhati-ia an-naim limz-khu-ru-ma ia-a-shi li-mash-shi-rzu-nim-,'a; seeII., 11. 8 ff.). Compare also the invocation to a haunting spirit in I., 11. 6 ff., whichends with the similar refrain an-na-a lim-khur-ma ia-a-shi li-mash-shi-ra-an-ni.The texts upon the tablet hwell illustrate the belief of the Babylonians andAssyrians that unless a dead man was properly buried (cf. I., 1. 24, ekimmu gsaina seri na-du-ma), and offerings made at his tomb, his spirit would not enterthe Underworld but would return to the earth as a spectre which roamed about,on the watch to haunt and plague any man who came within its power. Itsobject in doing so was doubtless to obtain an entrance into the Underworld byforcing the man it haunted to perform the necessary rites and make the properofferings to ensure its admittance therein. In these circumstances a wanderingspirit would, if possible, haunt its own kith and kin until they performed theduties they had neglected and laid it to rest; and the incantation quoted above
5
NO. PLATE.
would be suitable for such a case. But sometimes the ghost might have nonear relations or friends, as was the case with those departed spirits describedin the text under the phrases " the ghost who hath none to care for it " (ekimmupa-ki-da la i-shu-u, I., 1. 7), and "the ghost who hath no brother or sister"(ekimmu sha akhu u ak/adtzu Id ishz2, I., 1. 23). In such circumstances it wouldseize on and haunt an acquaintance, or even in certain circumstances a stranger,until he went to the priest, who, with the help of one or more of the incantationsupon this tablet, could obtain relief for the living and peace for the dead.No colophon or title has been preserved at the end of this composition, butafter four of the incantations in Col. I. occurs the title -d - J_ J Ad "-<
.-~- <(T -- r, INIM-INIM-MA BAD-MESH IGI-MES, "Incantation against theAppearance of the Dead" (cf. 11. Io, I6, 26, 32). We may therefore provision-ally accept this as the title of the series to which the tablet belonged. [K. 2175
+ K. 2469 + K. 2475 + K. 2480 + K. 7814] ... ... ... ... ... 15-22
5-9. Portions of four tablets inscribed with a series of directions for ceremonies andrites to be performed by a priest or magician for the restoration of sick men tohealth. In some cases short magical formulae are given, the recital of whichwas a necessary accompaniment to the due performance of the ceremonies andrites. The tablets belong to a series entitled ]T o <4- ( , -_£a T O TT- TT-,enuma amelu eli-shu ishatu u-kal, " When the fire (i.e., fever) consumeth upon aman," a title which the series takes from the opening words of its first tabletor section. A considerable portion of the First Tablet of the work is preservedby K. 2354, etc. The fragment K. 2574, etc., is labelled in its colophon ascontaining the text of the Second Tablet of the work; it preserves the upperpart of the tablet, while K. 26 11, to judge from its size and the character of theclay and writing, is probably the lower part of the same tablet. K. 2566 givesthe upper portion of Cols. I. and II. of the Third Tablet of the series. The textof the fine duplicate, K. 4023, preserving a considerable part of the ThirdTablet, will be published in a later part of " Cuneiform Texts, etc." S. 950preserves the beginning of the text of the Fourth Tablet, and from the factthat it preserves a catch-line, we may infer that there were at least five, if notmore, tablets of the series when it was complete. [K. 2354 + K. 2412 +K. 2463 + K. 3237 + K. 7086 + K. 8800 + K. 8842, K. 2574 + K. 3430 + K.3924 + K. 409I + K. 10509, K. 26I I, K. 2566, and S. 950] ... ... ... 23-50
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