Thomsen on the Evil Eye
Xuch: The article which you mention above "The Evil Eye in Mesopotamia" by Marie-Louise Thomsen (JNES 51, 1992), is as I think I've mentioned somewhere, the most direct treatment of this subject I know of. It's also the only treatment dealing with the Mesopotamian context that I know of and so I think we will find our information here shortly now that we come again to the subject. Don't forget you can most definitely access these articles, although it is a matter of getting yourself down to your nearest University library - throughly enjoyable I assure you.
In Couto-Ferreira's [url-http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~medicine/ashm/lectures/paper/paper13.pdf]little review of Mesopotamian illness[/url], she states that Thomsen is able to show that the belief is the evil eye is "fairly moderate", due to the few evidence's in the written record" , which will give us some idea of what to expect in the following review.
An early emphasis/
Thomsen starts her examination of the concept of evil eye in Mesopotamia with a retrospective looks at how early scholarship understood this belief and its centrality in Mesopotamian thought: At the at the turn of the (20th) century, she explains, Assyriologists understanding of the Religion was based largely on reading from Nineveh texts, and early Assyriologists such as Francois Lenormant, Charles Fossey and Morris Jastrow assigned an importance to the Evil Eye based on the sample of texts they had available in those times. Subsequently, studies of the Evil Eye such as Seligmann's "Der Bose Blick" (1903) and general studies focusing on Ancient Religion and Folklore (as late as
the anthropological symposium on the evil eye in 1972) have assigned a high position to Mesopotamia as the origin point based on the early emphasis assigned to the belief.
However, Thomsen makes the very important point that since the turn of the 20th century, many more texts have been recovered and translated and we know are working with a comparative huge array of texts and incantation texts which allows for a much broader assessment. She states accordingly, that given the early assertions of prevalence of the evil eye,
"one should expect to find numerous references to the evil eye in cuneiform texts, but, in fact, igi hul occurs rather rarely. Fewer than ten incantations, a few medical recipes, and only on fragmentary ritual directed against the evil eye are known to me. Moreover, there are some ten instances in other contexts.
"The Sources/
Incantations: The author gives 7 incantations she knows which in involves the evil eye - of these seven only 3 (the Yale Incantations, YOS) are definitively incantations against the evil eye, while in the others the function seems directed against but this is not confirmable. The museum numbers are below.
VAT 10018; TCL 16, 89; BL, no. 3; CT 17, pl.33; YOS 11, 70 (three in number)
References to in other incantations: Six other incantations mention the evil eye in passing, as part of a sequence of afflictions, i.e "Evil man, evil eye, evil mouth, evil tongue, evil spell, witchcraft, spittle," and adjurations "may they stand aside!" usually follow. One text reads "Evil storm(?), evil eye destroying the child".
Descriptions of the Evil Eye/
In texts evil eye is written igi.hul (eye.evil), and likewise lú.hul is "evil man" and so on. The author notes here that "the parallelism between igi.hul and lú.hul, ka.hul and eme.hul, etc. indicated that the eye is that of an evil person or a witch seeking to harm his or her enemy, but in some of the Sumerian incantations the eye is said to be an animal or a monster like the muš.huš, "dragon":
In YOS 70 she gives the following Text examples:
The eye is a single ox, the eye is a (single) sheep,
the eye is numerous men, the mouth is numerous men,
the eye is evil, the most evil thing.and
The eye (is) and ox, a donkey, a fierce lion, the eye of man (is),
an ox, a donkey a fierce lion.TCL 16, 89
The eye (is) a dragon, the eye of the man (is) a dragon,
the eye of the evil man )is) a dragon.Yet in the Akkadian text, VAT 10018, the eye is described specially as that of an enemy, a man or women.
The Effects of the Evil Eye/
Thomsen:
"These quotations all indicate that the evil eye was associated with witchcraft and sorcery and other evils caused by malevolent human beings. But whereas witchcraft most often resulted in conflicts with family and neighbors, serious illness, or even death, the effects of the eyil eye seem to be somewhat different. In TCL 16, 89 and BL. no. 3, they are described as accidents, situations which might happen to anyone at any time: it rains too little, the cheese-making goes wring, a tool breaks, clothes are torn, and the like. This view is supported by the Akkadian incantation VAT 10018, which mentions merely everyday occurrences, although some of them have a more serious character."
TCL 16, 89
(3): (The evil eye) approached heaven - it did not rain
It approached earth- herbs did not grow,
It approached the ox- its yoke opened,
It approached the cattle pen- its cheese was destroyed.
It approached the sheepfold- its ram was taken away(?)
.....(?)
It approached the round man- (his) belt was torn(?) (B: (his) strength was bound(?)),
It approached the young woman- she dropped her garment,
It approached the nurse with the child- he hold became loose (B: her arms were torn apart).
It approached the vegetables- lettuce and cress became bad,
It approached the garden- the fruit became bad.
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Protection against the Eye/
While the texts may indicated that witchcraft was not always, or not usually, the cause of evil eye, the evil eye is still clearly the bringer of, if not death, than problems or destitution and Thomsen next alludes to some of the ritual practice's the texts which fend off this affliction. One example is provided by BL, no. 3 in the form of a standard Marduk/Ea typ ritual instruction:
12. 7... from the back of the pestle,
13. (and) 7... from the back of the grinding slab
14. you mix with oil.
15. you bind it with the word,
16. with the incantation
17. you tie it around the neck of the patient.
CT 17, 33 has Enki himself curing patient by wiping him off with bread (a common cleansing practice.) And a medical recipe the author gives reads "The seed of the
azallû-plant: medication (against) the evil eye: that it should not approach a man, rub on it juniper oil. The seed of the
allumzu-plant: ditto: ditto." (BAM 1)
Concluding/
Thomsen:
" The references to the evil eye show that the phenomenon was recorded in ancient Mesopotamia over a very long period of time: from the end of the third millennium until the Late Babylonian period. Most sources are Sumerian, some of them with Akkadian translation, and there is one Akkadian incantation. At least on composition (CT 17, 33) was widely distributed with duplicated from Nineveh, Assur, Sultantepe, and the Late Babylonian period. Considering the enormous number of incantations and ritual texts, however, the rather small number of references concerning the evil eye does not justify speaking of a widespread belief among the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. The evil eye is connected with witchcraft, but, in fact, witches are rarely accused of looking at their victims, whereas their evil words are frequently mentioned in Maqlu and similar incantations...Although the evil eye, like witchcraft, was the work of human beings, its effects were generally thought to be of a more harmless character. It belonged to everyday annoyances but was not really dangerous since, usually, it did not affect the health of the person. This may be the reason for the absence of [many] rituals against the evil eye. It was simply not serious enough to demand a place among important incantation series.."
