Distinctions between Academic work and the Necronomicon

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hello all:



The necronomicon continues to be one of the biggest links between the public and Assyriology, albeit distorted Assyriology, whether it is through occult books available at any "New Age" section of a public book store, or references to the necronomicon on the new Evil Dead spin off "Ash Versus the Evil Dead". This topic isn't new to enenuru of course, and we have established a critical stance concerning the necronomicon at enenuru.net. Occasionally, I get questions here about material from the necronomicon, and recently I have written a response which I think gives a good indicator of whether the material in Simon's book should be considered legitimate. The answer must be nuanced somewhat, but is largely in the negative, of course.



I was asked about a spell posted at the following yahoo link . The below was my response.

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First my view of the necronomicon: I own a copy of the necronomicon, but I have to admit it sits on my shelf basically untouched. I can't bring myself to consider it in any detail, mainly because I hold it to be tainted by flaws and inaccuracies. The original author of the Necronomicon, H.P. Lovecraft (writing in the 1930s), and the author of the revised edition "Simon" (a fake name) writing in the 1970s, used material translated by the Assyriologist Knut L. Tallqvist. Tallqvist was a real scholar, but his work dates from the 1890s, and is therefore extremely out of date. This was before Assyriology developed as a science and no one in academia would use Tallqvist's work today - his translations are now considered, basically, wrong. But as we see below Simon's also incorporated material from 1960s scholarship. His material nevertheless has accuracy problems.

So your spell material as it appears at that yahoo link is a copy and paste from the Necronomicon itself - you can see the Necronomicon material at the following link, search for the word "alabaster"

lovecraft.ru/texts/necro/simon_eng/calling.html


I will divide this material into 3 pieces and discuss them below:


(A)
Bright One of the Heavens, wise ISHTAR
Mistress of the Gods, whose "yes" is truly "yes"
Proud One among the Gods, whose command is supreme
Mistress of Heaven and of Earth, who rules in all places
ISHTAR, at your Name all heads are bowed down
I . . . son of . . . have bowed down before you
May my body be purified like lapis lazuli!
May my face be bright like alabaster!
Like shining silver and reddish gold may I not be dull!


(B)
To Win the Love of a Woman

(chant the following three times over an apple or a pomegranate; give the fruit to the woman to drink of the juices, and she will surely come to you.)

(C)
MUNUS SIGSIGGA AG BARA YE
INNIN AGGISH XASHXUR GISHNU URMA
SHAZIGA BARA YE
ZIGASHUBBA NA AGSISHAMAZIGA
NAMZA YE INNIN DURRE ESH AKKI
UGU AGBA ANDAGUB!



A: This is part of an actual Mesopotamian magical text, I could tell that it was real Mesopotamian wording, but I couldn't place it - after some googling I stumbled on some answers. Many necronomicon people out there seem to call it preliminary purification invocation.. But it's not, it is the spoken part of a ritual to restore potency to a man who has lost his sexual potency. This text was first published by Robert Biggs (ŠÀ.ZI.GA: Ancient Mesopotamian Potency Incantations. Texts from Cuneiform Sources. Locust Valley, N.Y.: Augustin, 1967) in 1967, hence, it was published in English in time for "Simon" to reference it and add it to his 1970s Necronomicon. But "Simon" did so without proper context, and without citing and crediting the translator of these texts, who was Robert Biggs, a well known Assyriologist. You may notice the actual full Mesopotamian ritual instructs one to tie animals to the head and foot of the bed, this is because these animals were noted as being very sexually vigorous - the text is really about restoring erectile function, not love, two different things really. You can see a copy of the entire text at the following website, run by a scholar:


www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/saziga2.html


B: I was surprised to learn that this section is actually derived from genuine Mesopotamian love magic. The part in English about chanting something over an apple and giving it to the woman, this instruction was also translated by Robert Biggs in 1967, but in an appendix which treats a small number of love incantations and rituals. "Simon" took something from the middle of the Biggs' book, part A above, which belongs to an incantation addressing male erectile function; and then, he took a piece from an actual love incantation in the appendix of Biggs' book. Therefore the entire section A, B, C is a mixture of potency and love magic, which are two different problems: one spell type is aimed at restoring sexual function, the other spell type is aimed at causing a woman to fall in love with you - although, as the texts show, the real aim is simply to compel her to permit sexual intercourse. A recent translation of that portion text section B reads:

"The beautiful woman has forth (as) love - Inanna, fond of apples and pomegranates, has come forth as potency. Rise! Fall! Love stone, go straight for me! Rise! Inanna, you are truly the one who does (it) via the anus! She presided over love.
Recitation for cases where a woman looks at a man's penis.
Its ritual: You recite the recitation three times over an apple or a pomegranate. You give it to her (and) have her suck their juices. (Wherever) that woman goes, you will be able to make love to her." (Joann Scurlock "Medicine and Healing Magic" 2014).

Not so charming to most modern people I don't think but we are talking about an ancient people who tied hooved animals to their bed posts for additional 'inspiration.'


C: The 'ancient' language which "Simon" gives you in section C is actually just the ancient text behind the translation given in B (from "The beautiful woman"....to "She presided over love".) Except that "Simon" has mangled the script and spelled things wrong, maybe in an attempt to make it look more Lovecraft like, or just a misunderstanding of how the script works. Here is how things are supposed to be spelled (according to today's science):



1. ÉN munus.sig5.sig5.ga ág ba.ra.è
2. (d)INNIN ág giš.ḫašḫur giš.nu.úr.ma
3. šà.zi.ga ba.ra.è
4. zi.ga šub.ba na4.ág si.sá.ma zi.ga
5. nam.za.e (d)INNIN dúr.re.éš ak ki
6. ugu ág ba.an.da.gub


Compare the Necronomicon:

MUNUS SIGSIGGA AG BARA YE
INNIN AGGISH XASHXUR GISHNU URMA
SHAZIGA BARA YE
ZIGASHUBBA NA AGSISHAMAZIGA
NAMZA YE INNIN DURRE ESH AKKI
UGU AGBA ANDAGUB!

[hukkana]

I basically know nothing about "Simon"'s creation other then that it exists, but I've read Lovecraft, and not just his fiction but his nonfiction as well (I read Supernatural Horror in Literature about three times and used it as a jumping off point for my search for obscure and interesting weird fiction), plus I've a friend who used to bring up his volumnious letters to all manner of people, so I'll say that Lovecraft's work has nothing to do with ancient Mesopotamia, I don't think he really even had much interest in it, given firstly his passionate reading, the extremely numerous letters he penned every month to all manner of people, and then his personal situation being less then ideal (I read a long time ago that it was suspected cheap food resulted in him developing intestinal cancer). I know he had an interest in the religion of the Greeks as a child but that is all I know of the subject.

Really, Lovecraft isn't the author of the Necronomicon per se, but he created it as a fictional book to feature in his stories.