Analysis from Schriebman

[us4-he2-gal2]

Thread Orientation: Notes of various sorts from a cross cultural Dissertation.

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Analysis from Schriebman

I have previously made a reference or two to this scholars very interesting dissertation entitled Studies in the Comparative Literature of the Ancient Near East: An Interpretation of Shurpu and Spell 125. This, as the name may suggest, is an attempt to analyse parallels and similarities to the Mesopotamian Shurpu magical texts and Spell 125 of the Egyptian book of the dead. What is valueable about the paper over and above the subject matter itself is the authors efforts to engage in a level of comparison that isn`t usually braved when dealing with the literature of these two cultures - whats more valuable still to me is the actual analysis he performs in preparing this comparison as his commentary on Mesopotamian magic is proving quite worth the read, notably for its engaging discussion if not for an absolute pedantic approach. I have already used some of Schriebman comments on the Definitions of ĝiš-ḫur (B/W) thread, in regards magic circles.


For me, the beauty of this paper so far is hearing the Author`s insights and context providing comments why make the Mesopotamian world come alive and take shape - I therefore intend to post general notes on this thread for awhile and will move on to
summing the central arguement (Shurpu and Spell 125) after.

[us4-he2-gal2]

The Light of Day

Binding and Prisons in Mesopotamia

In many Mesopotamian incantations various words equal to "to bind" or "bound" are used. These terms would seem to be a common feature of incantation narratives and are used both to the advantage and disadvantage of the human victim. Below are a few examples:





Binding as a defense/



From an Ur III incantation (TMH 6 4)

19. Apply (the remedy) in the 'sick' place,
20. So that it may bind the tooth of the lion in high water,
21. so that it may bind the tooth of the fearful snake, on dry land,
22. so that the incantation may bind the tooth of the gall-gnashing snake.


From the Bann Bann incantation

15. may nisaba’s net bind him,
16. (if) he passes over the commandment


In both of the above examples, the threat or hostile force is contained and nullified by the action of binding, in the first case likely in ritual analogy, and in the second through divine intervention. However, while binding can be applied to demonic threats, it is equally a means of demonic oppression and attack on the man:




Binding as demonic attack/



From an evil eye incantation:


"It approached the round man- (his) belt was torn(?) (B: (his) strength was bound(?))"



From an Early Dynastic Incantation

"southwind is bound,
the northwind is bound
the sickness is inside the body
(and 'self') of men is bound."

Here the sickness is maliciously "bound" within the man, in what is likely a demonic action.

And from an incantation again Ki-sikil-lil-la (later Ardat-lili) a line reads:

"A young man whose (personal) god bound him out of hostility"






Schriebman's "bound captive" discussion/



Schriebman notes that in the incantation series Shurpu, there are numerous analogies involves the "bound captive" motif - in example tablet 4 lines 74-75 read: "The fettered go free, the captive go free. the prisoner see the light of day." His discussion on this motif also seems to me to be revealing for the concept of binding in incantation spells, such as we see above.

He explains that the prisoner motive in Shurpu may be as prominent as it is due to state of prisons and how people were imprisoned in Mesopotamia. Common reasons for imprisonment included the taking of enemy forces or foreign people of course, but in other cases as well, the family members of debtors would be imprisoned if a debt could not be paid. A debtor had the option of imprisoning family members as a sort of pledge Scriebman explains, and he thinks this is reflected in another Shurpu line reading: "he has put your wife, your sons, your slave girls into prison." However he adds "Both Biblical and Mesopotamian law set limits on how long a man could offer his own family member up as a pledge."

A little more detail about this sort of condition, a family member given as pledge, is interesting. In the context of these pledges, its explained, it often meant living on the creditors estate - the pledged family member is forced to live on the persons estate who is owed the money by the father, in a makeshift prison. Schriebman says letters from the Kassite period suggest that abuse was also used as a means of hastening payment.



Prisons were pits (dark)/


What starts to get very interesting about Schriebman's discussion is his description of Mesopotamian prisons - both makeshift ones on a creditors estate, and more general use prisons used to house criminals or captured foreigners:

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Throughout Mesopotamia the quality and characteristics of prison are virtually identical. In spite of differences in time and technology, cross-culturally the prisoner seems to have suffered from the same environment and fate. The "prison" more often than not was a dark pit or hole. The location of the prisoners included meager sustenance and insufficient space: "The crouching-one hastens that he may be loosed, and that he not die in the pit, nor shall his bread fail." Fast action was a factor due to the life threatening conditions in prison: "who died of hunger (lit. and) imprisonment, who died of thirst in imprisonment." The prisoner or captive was thus considered among the unfortunates in society, due the aid of caring citizens. It should be noted that imprisoned slaves did not qualify for these gestures of concern."

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Binding and the Bound captive/


Scriebman continues: "The figurative image of the "bound captive" is based in the motif of binding. That which is bound is physically debilitated. Thus, in magical rites the ritual act of binding is a means of causing physical of psychological ills. The bound individual becomes the captive of the illness, waiting for liberation and release. Thus we head: "let him be freed from his captive state, let him recover from his being sick."


Shamash-UTU and the light of day/

Schriebman: It is also common to turn to Shamash for succor regarding these kinds of illnesses. This parallel, literary pair of being bound and being ill appear frequently as attributes of Shamash's merciful powers: "Shamash it is in your power to give health to the deadly sick, to free the bound." This is the same usage found in Shurpu IV: 73-74: "the sick get well, the fallen get up" II "fettered go free, captive go free" together with the poetic closure .. "the prisoner see the light (of day)."




Concluding/



Incantations frequently make use of analogies of binding, either to defend against hostile forces 'may so and so bound - may their venomous mouth be bound' etc., or conversely, as descriptions of the suffering a demon is inflicting on a man, his legs are bound, his arms are bound - he is sick or dieing because the binding makes him ill, or the demon binds a sickness into him. A sick man is captive to the illness, a captive of demons. Schriebman's insight into Mesopotamian prisons is very interesting here, and we see a parallel in that persons condemned to the pit were in like manner fettered and dieing. Their only hope was to escape back to "the light of day" , and here it is fascinating that in incantations Shamash is often the beneficent god, prayed to for release. This same dynamic is seen again in Literary works, particularly in Dumuzi's Dream, when Dumuzi, fleeing from demons who are attempting to capture him and drag him off to the netherworld, prays to Utu/Shamash again and again for deliverance. And Utu, the day (or the day light) "Like a merciful man he showed him mercy."

[madness]

And if you need a copy of the Book of the Dead, the Oriental Institute conveniently released just a couple of days ago, as part of their Electronic Publications Initiative:

The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day
Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 37
Translated by Thomas George Allen
oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/saoc/saoc37.html

[us4-he2-gal2]

Nice - thanks man Will have to check this out when we get to the comparison part!

[us4-he2-gal2]

Cultic Parameters

From: Studies in Comparative Religion and Literature of the Ancient Near East: An Interpretation of Shurpu and Spell 125
by Henry M. Shreibman

A) Law of Contagion, Sympathetic Magic B) Sacred Food, C) Sacred Place, D) Sacred Time

In his section 3.1.1 , Shreibman examines four categories of what he terms "cultic parameters". The first category, A), deals with an aspect of the Mesopotamian worldview, that is their understanding of how negative attributes, specifically spiritual pollution, could be transferred from a intentionally or unintentionally be transfered to a victim from something accursed. B) deals with concepts of sacredness and food, sacrifice, pollution and dietary regulations. About C) Sacred place and D) Sacred time, I was able to extract less information from Shreibman here and so kept my notes more minimal.

A) Law of Contagion

Shreibman begins with some very word heavy contextualizing, before coming to the core of his discussion, however, in essential, he states that the patient (or victim) in a Mesopotamian magical context first acknowledges his "polluted condition." This term is corresponds to a Mesopotamian sufferers position, he is sick, acted against, he has mental anguish or his life is being ruined: some hostile act or intention has made him unpure, has polluted him. In Mesopotamia of course, these general terms will most often equate to demon born disease.

It is at this point when a sufferer has determined he is unpure, Shreibman says, that religious worldviews which hold to the principals of sympathetic magic would seek one of several essential sources for the pollution: "1. The Individual's own actions and thoughts and 2. intentional or unintentional contact with another individual who transmitted the feared contagion. A finer analysis of these origins would distinguish between active or passive transmission of the contagion."


The Stigma (contagion) of Evil people/


While in the Maqlu series the victims pollution is the result of the working of hostile magic users who transmit woe to the victim by means of sympathetic magic (i.e. use of a figurine) the author observes a different principle in use in Shurpu.. In this series, pollution is derived from the victims own actions, in specific, the victim has made poor social choices by associating with an accursed person. According to the laws of contagion, this presents a serious problem, and thus Shreibman quotes from Shurpu:

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"He went straight toward an accursed person,
an accursed person went straight toward him,
he slept in the bed of an accursed person,
he sat in the chair of an accursed person,
he (ate) at the table of an accursed person,
he drank from the cup of an accursed person."


As he did these things voluntarily, "the patient is described as having actively pursued and been attracted by a negative social
stratum." Interestingly, Shreibman believes these references
can be explained by "the general interdiction against
intentional social contact with "evil" people, who transmit their
form of pollution" and quotes a further description of the
patient from Shurpu as someone who:

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"who knows improper things
has learned unseemly things
who has taken his stand with wickedness,
transgressed the borderline of right."




The author adds "In the ancient Near East an individual was judged by his public contacts and held ritually accountable for his social interactions." In other words, that a man may be thought to catch the pollution and affliction of an accursed or evil man, is perfectly in keeping with his apparently likelihood to also share societal condemnation as a result of associating with him.


The physical manifestation of the "pollution"/



Shreibman mentions that in Shurpu, this pollution (or curse) has an implied physical nature: it is described as being "united" with the victim like a knot or like fetters - it is something to be "shed" or "wiped off" - or "washed down" the river.

B) Sacred Food

In defining the concept of what is "sacred food" Shreibman comes
upon the topic of what is "taboo" which has the technical connotation of what is "not to be approached lightly." At enenuru, we examined Taboo in the Mesopotamian context On the Taboo thread.

According to the reading on the Taboo thread, and in particular to input we observe from M. J. Geller, taboo in Mesopotamian should in many contexts be understood as that which is the "reserve" of something, this or that item is "the reserve of the gods" and any use of it outside a set ritual or ceremonial context results in breaking the taboo on the item.

Shreibman's discussion proceeds in accordance with this understanding, as the lines he refers to in Shurpu read as
follows..the patient is someone who:

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"who has eaten what is tab(oo) to his god, who has eaten what is taboo to his goddess."



Later lines elaborate further on this mistake, the patient has failed to service the gods in the prescribed manner. He:

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"made the purifications, (then) complained and withheld (it)...saved something (for the gods, but) ate it."


Shreibman next establishes the importance of sacred (sacrificial) food: "The spiritual and ceremonial importance of "proper" service to the gods is evident from the frequent appearance of this category of transgression. The sacrificial food was considered the property of the Temple, and the suppliant was expected to be trustworthy. The reliable care and feeding of the gods established theological 'credit' for the individual:

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"Give food to eat, beer to drink,
Grant what is asked, provide for and honour,
In this a man's god takes pleasure,
It is pleasing to Shamash, who will repay with
favour."




It is explained the notion of making a loan on a loan (food for the gods in exchange for good will) is a principal seen through the ancient Near East.


Stigma of an Evil persons food/


Shurpu also contains lines which indicate the possibility of pollution from an accursed individuals food: just as how, above, we saw that one may have pollution transmitted as a result of contact with an accursed or evil person, we see here it may be transmitted by means of food:

Shurpu III:131-133

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"'the oath': to eat an accursed man's food,
"'the oath': to drink an accursed man's water,
"'the oath': to drink an accursed man's leftover."



This is a transgression, and "it is clear that physical contact with an individual whose behavior lies outside the acceptable norm is threatening to the physical and spiritual well-being of the patient." Interestingly, Shreibman points out it can also work the other way, as when the Mesopotamian kings were privileged (and blessed) in partaking of the sacrificial "leftovers" of the gods.



Blessing food to be consumed/


Food that was to be consumed, the article explains, was widely
practiced in Mesopotamia to remove any sorts of restrictions that were on the food; of course, as we have seen sacrificial food was always the reserve of the gods, however, as Shreibman observes, some foods were considered taboo by certain gods on for other reasons.. for example Nedu the gatekeeper of the underworld found the consumption of doves or roosters taboo, perhaps because they were birds that act as guards or due to some association with feathers and the dead in Mesopotamia. Likewise the eating of a roof mouse was a "sin to Enlil" - and other examples are given. It seems the Mesopotamians did not maintain a strong grasp of what was and wasn't supposed to be eaten according to which god and thus some afflicted victims will lament "unknowingly I ate what is forbidden to my god.."

With this understanding, Shreibman explains that blessing food before consumption was a widespread practice in Mesopotamia, an act which 'released' known or unknown restrictions on the food about to be consumed. "It appears that the devout would wash,
sing praises, and make an offering before consuming any food."
This the author is able to tell from a series of statements from the text which state a man has been afflicted due to breaking these 'dietary laws' one might call them...in example: "But has eaten his food without invoking his god, and abandoned his goddess by not bringing a flour offering." And the importance of ritual washing is apparent in these lines: "Quickly, (fetch) me water for my hands, and give it to me so that I can dine... Shamash accompanies washed hands." Shreibman concludes food taboos appear to be a society's means of expressing a need for ritual purity and cultural order.

C) Sacred Place

The discussion of sacred place while consistent with the them of cultic parameters, needs no great repetition here. Shreibman makes a serious of observations such a place may be sacred due to mythic significance (such as when Gilgamesh explains the founding of the walls of Uruk), or that entrances "carry with them powerful potential for good or evil." In addition mountains and high places he says are considered sacred for their purity as in one incantation in Shurpu which correlates the purity of the mountain together with the expiating mountain waters.

Shriebman's discussion here seems to some extent cursory, and limited to Sacred places which are not Temples. Of course, a discussion of why a temple is sacred may have much more value in
discussing Mesopotamian concepts of the sacred and of ritual purity, as we have observed elsewhere how some of the same divine mediators which feature in incantation and ritual are also found in the temple and act to bridge the divine and temporal worlds (to mediate.)

An example of an obvious divine mediator used both in magic ritual and in the temple is juniper as incense (see here).

D) Sacred Time

Concerning sacred time, the author is most concerned with regularly occurring sacred days and observes: "The rhythm of cultic life spun with the spheres of the heavens, demonstrating an awareness of lunar, solar and general celestial events." Shreibman notes that in Mesopotamia, the general conception of time "integrated the notion of fate on a microcosmic scale." That is to say, according to hemerology and extispicy texts, there are "good days" and "evil days" to do things. So, following the lunar progression of time, certain days are deemed ritually sacred and auspicious on a monthly basis - Shreibman presents the following lines from Shurpu which is a list of days which are good days for expiation:

"Of heaven and earth: day,month and year, holy eve, holy day, the 7th, the 15th, the 19th, the 20th, the 25th, the day of the new moon, the day of the washing (ritual), the evil day, the 30th."

The 1st, 7th and 15th are mentioned as days especially set aside for purification rites in Akkadian ritual, and the 16th and 17th (the days of the appearance of the full moon) are sometimes considered important as well. The 20th was a special day for Shamash. Personal gods may have had set days of the month in which they were particularly honored.