On the Use of Figurines

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Thread Orientation: In this thread we can add those explanations as are available for the use of the Figurines in Mesopotamian Ritual and Incantation - the practice of Cult statue to house the deity at the temple should be treated elsewhere (except if by way of brief comparison.) Especially interesting I believe, are those rare early occurences.

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***The reader here might first refer to my post on the Ur III Ritual and Ceremony thread (here)
for notes on figurines from some Ur III texts (reply # 4)

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from: "Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds"

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Last week at the Library I was browsing through what I think of as the "occult" section. I'm not actually sure what the official label for this shelf is, but when taking a break from the ANE areas I drift over there sometimes and browse. I should love to have the time to read some of these works and I have an active imagination and a taste for approaching in so scholarly a manner as I'm able those subjects which might often receive disdain from the scholarly world. Vampires, magic, demons and what have you - This day while in the occult section I couldn't resist picking up a title (mentioned above) "Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds".
I was very surprised when reviewing the contents to see quite familiar names among the contributers- among which were not only E. Reiner but W.G Lambert! Certainly top ANE scholars. And in addition D. Hansen contributes an interesting article: Ive copied part of the Contents page below:

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Erica Reiner Magic Figurines, Amulets, and Talismans....27

W.G. Lambert Gilgamesh in Literature and Art: The Second and First Millennia.....37

Donald P. Hansen The Fantastic World of Sumerian Art: Seal Impressions from Ancient Lagash.......53

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But to continue with the relevant article, Reiner's, I sum her key comments on the matter of figurines in the following. We obtain a good overview of the difficulties in this effort in this, (I've added my own highlights below.)


pg. 29

"Our sources also fail us when we seek in them descriptions that match amulets or magic figurines. Apart from the Lamaštu amulets on which the demon is depicted in the same shape and with the same attributes as the Lamaštu incantations specify, correspondences between the descriptions of demons and monsters and their representations are hard to find. Not even the representations of the monstrous creatures inscribed in a unique text last edited by Kocher⁸ have to my knowledge yet been identified.

[note 8: F. Kocher. "Der babylonishce Gotertypentext," Mitteilungen des Instituts fur Orientforschung 1 (1953) 51-107]


This text, known since 1894 and dubbed "Gottentypentext" by its first editor Bezold, gives precise descriptions of half-human, half-animal figures, specifying not only their shapes and paraphernalia but even their postures. It also identifies each composite monster by name, usually by a name not known from other sources but occasionally by a name familiar from other texts, such as the lahmu-creatures of the apsú who belong to the retinue of the god Ea. Incidentally, the only seal that is referred to by its figural representation, in a letter from the Middle-Assyrian period [KAV 98:9, Oppenheim 1967, n. 85] is called "the seal of the laḫmu."

.....as we shall see, texts with instructions for drawing magical representations were neither written by accomplished artists nor did they presuppose artistic talent on the part of the magical expert.

The numerous magic rituals (namburbi, Maqlû, bīt mēsiri, etc.) that use figurines hardly ever describe them. They simply direct the magic practitioner to fashion one or several şalmu's. The term şalmu can designate any figural representation, rock-relief or statue in the round, from life-size and larger-than-life-size to the smallest ornament worn as jewelry, and may even refer to the shape of a constellation. It is also the the term used to describe, for instance, the representation of the moon god Sin on the costly jasper cylinder seal Assurbanipal engraved, a fact reported by Nabonidus [VAB 4 286 x 35], though this representation, other texts tell us, may have simply been the lunar crescent. Alas, the word şalmu does not seem to mean "amulet."

Since the purpose of the magic rituals is eventually to destroy the figurines, and with them the evil they represent, by burning or melting them, or throwing them into a river, or burying them in a deserted place, it would be strange indeed if such figurines had survived. In any case, it is the magic operation, the personification of the evil in a material form so that it can be disposed of, that lies at the core of these rituals, and versimilitude to the evil demon is hardly a necessary factor. While some figurines mentioned in these texts can be identified with surviving representations, such as the mentioned Lamaštu or the famous Pazazu head, others cannot, whether it be the figurine of Gilgameš or figurines of evil demons known under generic names as the evil utukku, the evil alu, the evil rābişu etc., not to speak of the figurine of an evil power simply called mimma lemnu "anything evil," whose features even the Babylonians may have been at a loss to specify.

In fact the texts are rather reluctant to provide descriptions and physical characteristics of such evil demons. On the contrary, they insist on the fact that the demons are featureless - they are like clouds, now amassing, now dissolving."

Reiner thus concludes that regrettably, "the scholars who prescribed the fashioning of magic figurines and amulets apparently had no connection or contact with those craftsman and artists who engraved seals or reliefs. " While sometimes scribes did a drawing on a tablet (rare) there were "schematic or clumsy" and issued instructions for the drawing of these depictions elsewhere, the drawings did not contain any appreciable features or do not add to our idea of the Mesopotamian vision of the demonic.

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Still to come: Continuing notes on the depiction of demons, and the use of figurines in magic ritual.

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Extract from The Role of Amulets in Mesopotamian Ritual Texts
By B. Goff, 1966

Goff here mentions a few misc. uses of figurines which though isolated, makes for a nice note:


"Ebeling⁶ has published others which contribute further details about figurines. In these incantations some are made only to be destroyed, like the figurines in Maqlu⁷. One figure is outlined in meal on the ground so that the enemy may exhaust his anger on it harmlessly⁸. Again a figurine of a bull is to be modelled with a rider on its back. In the bull's mouth will be sed a band of red wool. The rider, who presents the enemy, is to have his name written on the left side, not for purposes of precision, but because the name is per se a potent factor which can be used to work a man harm. Then bull and rider are to be buried in a river. ⁹ In still another text¹⁰ two figurines of tamarisk wood are to represent the gods Anu and Adad. Unlike the others, these figures are preserv ed and set up to ward off a man's enemies."


6. "Beschworungen gegen de Feind und den bosen Blick aus dem Zweistromlande." Symbolaw ... Hrony, I (Archiv Orientalni, VXII), Prague, 1949, pp. 172-211; Aus dem Tagewerk eins assyrischen Zauberpriesters, pp. 13-27. See also the artile by C. Leonard Wolley, "Babylonian Prophylactic Figures," JRAS (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society), pp. 689-713, with notes on texts by Sidney Smith.
7. Symbolae ... Horzny, I, pp. 175, 193.
8. Ibid., pp. 173, 179.
9. Ebeling, Aus dem Tagewerk eines assyrischen auberpriesters, pp. 20-23.
10. Symbolae .. Hrony, I, pp. 176, 200.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Extract

(Ibid.)



In relation to incantation and ritual to guard against ghosts:

ghost = hostile enemy, often associated with disease.
sickman = Exorcist's patient on whose behalf ritual nis perfomed.


Goff: "Sometimes images are made of the dead man. Often they are destroyed in some way. They may be buried under a thorn bush. They may be deposited in a base. In one text the image of the dead is placed before the god, while another image is contructed of the living sick man for whom the incantation is pronounced. The image of the sick man is buried in his family's grave, in the hope that it will prove an acceptable substitue for the man who fears he is about to die. In another text, an image is made of the ghost of the sick man's father. It is dressed in women's cloths and an incantation is said over it. Then those cloths are removed and put in their place. "

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p. 24


The following incantation that Goff lists pertains to a magical ritual to silence a man's enemy, his enemy sorcerer, by use of a figurine and cylender seals - as this text helps to demonstate cylinder seals could be powerful amulets and objects of magical power.




Obverse.

33. [This] you shall recite, suplhur in the ḫulpaqu
34. throw, as soon as the reed has caught (??) fire, you sgall with river water
35. extinguish it, afterwards you shall make a figure of his enemy
36. out of potter's clay, turn its arms to the back,
37. with a seal of šubû-stone and haematite [his] mouth [seal],
38. set it before Šamaš, his hands [sall he wash] over it.

Reverse


1. The following incantation three times over it [recite]:
2. Incantation: A figure of my enemy are you! The figure (is) stron (??). My ḫ,ulpaqu is the figure [ ] !
3. In your epigastrium have I cause paralysis to arise!
4/ I have laid hold of your outh so that it cannot say evil against me, with a [seal]
5. of šubû-stone and of haematite have I sealed your lips
6. [so that they may no]t bring forth my name.

Goff: " This text shows vividly thata clay likeness of a man regarded as an enemy was made, its arms bound behind its bank, like some of the prisoners we have seen in the early art. Then two [cylinder] seals made of particular stones were rolled across its lips so that it was unable to pronounce any "magical" words."

[vai]

This bit I found very interesting:

" The image of the sick man is buried in his family's grave, in the hope that it will prove an acceptable substitue for the man who fears he is about to die."

Certainly not something I would have thought of, or would want to try, but interesting to see what these folks believed!

I'd rather bury the image under a healthy and very old tree