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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 13:12:19 GMT -5
** Refined July 23 **
A short time ago, as 10 days seems to be a short time at tod, but almost 60 posts ago, the idea that we might broaden the definition of vampirism in Sumer by including sacrifice's or ritual which include blood. I had been at that very time reviewing a related subject in a certain journal, and since it came up at tod, I also reviewed a few other sources. In the end I would opt to continue the examination of possible vampiric entities using a "Blood drinking" only criteria, because blood sacrifice seems to be demonstratably impracticable here:
"The Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice" by: Dennis J. McCarthy Journal of Biblical literature, 1969
I have here a recounting, or a review if that applies, of the above journal entry which was accessed through jstor. Ive attempted to sum that which pertains to blood sacrifice in Mesopotamia, and in the process have summed some of the authors central argument. Although McCarthy is writing without a specialization we usually draw from, he seems to do as good a job as any I know at addressing the issue at hand.
"Since Wellhaven & W. Robertson Smith a prime base for the claim that blood is divine and so is used in ritual has been the assertion that the ancient Semitic world generally held that 'in the blood is life,' or at least that was characteristic of the West Semites. The purpose of this paper is to study the extra biblical evidence to see whether it confirms the doctrine of Gen. 9 4, Lev. 17 11, and Deut. 12 23. This means careful study of what is largely indirect evidence we have descriptions of or allusions to the rites, not explanations of their meaning. Turning to the evidence, we might expect that the ancient cultural leader, Mesopotamia, would attribute a divine character to blood, for blood, or at least human blood, was from the gods. They had created man by vivifying clay with the blood of a god slain for rebellion, but no conclusions for the cult seem to have been drawn from this. The Mesopotamian sacrifice was essentially a meal served to the gods, a ritual undoubtedly influenced by the Sumerians, who, as far as we know, did not associate blood with the clay of creation [....]" "This might account for the concept of the sacrifice banquet, but it leaves unexplained the unimportance of blood in their [Mesopotamian Semites] numerous purificatory and dedicatory ritual. "This contrasts sharply with Hebrew practice, where blood was the universal purifier and consecrater."
McCarthy goes on to counter claims that the Akkadian word 'naqu' ("pour") as a word for "offer sacrifice" denotes pouring of a victims blood. He believes that the more traditional drink offering is what is referenced here, and as an element of the Mesopotamian sacrificial banquet would be more clearly in context as opposed to the "unattested use of blood." In reference to Mesopotamian magic and ritual McCarthy says "The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary gives no references to Damu in incantation texts and the like." He mentions that Damu or blood is featured in Omen texts, but only alongside the liver and other parts and that it had "no special meaning in its own right." The author does however refer to two rituals which touch on blood in the barest of ways. The first is from a šurpu purificatory rite envolveing red wool. One theory is that the red wool had a therapeutic role and may symbolize blood (though this isnt explicit). The other reference is to the Babylonian New Year text in which a slaughtered sheep is used to purify the temple. But "the body, not the blood, purifies, and even it does not purify like in LEV 16." (it absorbs impurities and becomes contaminated.)
McCarthy continues: "The typical purificatory rite in Mesopotamian practice was washing or rubbing with water or oil or milk or the like, not with blood as in Israel. In fact, the Hittite ritual of Papanikri is unusual in cuneiform because it uses blood to purify. Blood was smeared on a building contaminated by bloodshed, and the removal of the new blood took away the contamination of the old..It is specific for problems relating to blood, not something speacially powerful in its own right. Finally, in looking at the use of blood for general ritual purposes (as in not specifically sacrificial or purificatory) he states: "This is not to say that ritual use of blood is unmentioned outside of Israel. It is, in rituals pertaining to the dead or to the gods of death. This is found in the standard Babylonian form of the story of Etana:
Daily Etana beseeches Shamash: 'Thou hast eaten, O Shamash, the fat of my sheep, the netherworld has drunk of the blood of my lambs, the gods I have honored, the ghosts (etimmu) I have revered.'
Blood belongs to the lower regions. If it revived its ghosts (we are not told), this would recall the idea that "in blood is life," though not in the Biblical sense. Essentially blood belongs to the gods of Death not life. "
To me this particular Etana line is rather light evidence for the explicit assoiciation of blood and the Netherworld gods. While of course there is some conceptual similarity between Death and Blood just on a common sense level, I would still seek further textural evidence to support the Mesopotamian association between blood and the Netherworld. There are two reasons I would seek further sources 1. A more recent translation of the Etana lines from "Myths from Mesopotamia" (S.Dalley 2000) translates the second line as: "Earth has drunk the blood of my lambs"
and secondly I found a followup journal entry by the McCarthy entitled:
"Further Notes on the Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice" by: Dennis J. McCarthy Journal of Biblical Literature 1973
I was happy to find this follow up article by the author as his concluding notes in the first entry did leave me with lingering questions. It seemed established somewhat firmly that Mesopotamian Sacrificial and Purificatory rituals contrast rather strongly with corresponding Hebrew rites in that the later envolve blood and the former refrain from its use entirely. But the lingering question McCarthy's observations left me with was his basis for stating blood was associated explicitly with the netherworld in Mesopotamia - if so when and where? In his second entry unfortunately he does little to reinforce this, rather he seems to back away from the assertion.. Which will be worth noting:
"Blood plays an important part in the Hittite rituals for communicating with the underworld, where it is the preferred drink of its denizens. The Hittite rite seems to have congeners in Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine. Each area had a rite involving a pit with a name cognate to the Hittite a-a-bi. However, the Mesopotamian texts do no mention blood, though they describe the rite in some detail. That is, though there is evidence from Mesopotamia connecting sacrificial blood and ghosts, [1] the texts which treat directly the ways of dealing with ghosts do not concern themselves with blood. Is this an indication that there was no series attribution of special magic powers to blood in this area? Does it indicate that the mention in the Etana story is only a sort of 'common sense' observation: the blood of the sacrifice goes into the ground, the place of the ghosts, and so naturally belonged to the dead? In any event the contrast with the Hittite practice is noticeible: Mesopotamian necromancy neglected blood and Hittite emphasized it. If this is not simply owing to accidents of transmissions it is another sign of the disassociation of belief about the powers of blood from ideas of sacrifice, for Hittite and Mesopotamian shared a common view of sacrifice as a provisioning of the gods but has different views about the importance of blood and its sphere."
[note 1: In the Etana myth; see JBL (1969) 171-72)]
So McCarthy has a) made a case against Blood as in the Mesopotamian sacrifice b) made a case against blood in Mesopotamian purification ritual and c) Presented slight evidence for blood in relation to netherworld rites [the Etana line], which I think is void, and which he somewhat withdrew or contradicted in his followup article. His statement and question "the texts which treat directly the ways of dealing with ghosts do not concern themselves with blood. Is this an indication that there was no serious attribution of special magic powers to blood in this area?" I found to be very central so I attempted to confirm it. I reviewed the incantations in "Forerunners to Udughul" pgs 21-84, 13 pages of which contain reference's to the 'evil ghost' and 3 page of which contain references to 'ghost'. I also reviewed Diana Katz' (2003) chapter "Subsistence and Ecological Condition of the Netherworld" as well as Cohens chapter "Festivals for the Netherworld" which I think together give a rounded picture. Certainly I have heard confirmed the banquet picture of McCarthy, while Katz relays that the dead must be offered (quite mundane) food and drink, Cohens descriptions of cultic offerings relay that the NW gods recieve the same ovine or Bovine offerings as did the rest of the gods. So far then, from what I have seen McCarthy is quite right in his above observation "the texts which treat directly the ways of dealing with ghosts do not concern themselves with blood"
However I invite contradiction, but believe he was incorrect in his early statement "This is not to say that ritual use of blood is unmentioned outside of Israel. It is, in rituals pertaining to the dead or to the gods of death. "
From those three sources I reviewed, I can only produce one example of relevant mention of blood (and this is excluding 'bad blood' a poison or a venom mentioned in an incantation). The mention is in Cohen [The Cultic Calenders of the ANE] pg. 459 the author alludes to a Assyrian ritual [KAR 146 r.1] a line of which reads "he will go and collect the blood in the apu, pour honey and oil into the apu." The apu was a conduit to the NW. in which offering might be made to the dead, but the author does not comment on the line, and its not clear who "he"is, or how/why the blood got there, nor why he would collect it if it were an offering to the dead or the N.W. ..or maybe he is cleansing the apu before the offering of honey/oil can be made. Overall this post is a bit of an aside, Next week I hope to have a presentation of the next Entity. Cheers
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 13:14:28 GMT -5
**updated Nov.23 07**(***This particulr post in this thread, is now a post in which Ill keep a running tally of lines which directly support blood drinking/ritual in Mesoptoamia***) In this case I decided to follow up McCarthy's referencing of 'damu' in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, while he reported there are no instances relating to the "incantation texts and the like", I found there are the CAD reference under damu for CT 16. Upon some inspection I would now say this early publication does indeed treat incantation material, much of what Thompson drew upon for his 1903 presentation of the Utukki Limnuti series, see library.case.edu/ksl/ecoll/books/bmc1600/bmc1600e.htmlCurrent Blood Drinking count: **6 [CAD D - Damu]. See also cdli: P2387401-us.ku.ku.mes suh.nu.tum.mu.mes : akil da-mi la mupparkuti sunu "they (the demons) are incessant drinkers of blood" from CT 16 14 iv 34f. [CAD D - Damu]. See also cdli: P2387402-su bi.in.ku.ku.mes mud sur.sur.mes us.nag.mes : akil siri musaznin da-me satu usiati "eaters of flesh, who cause blood to flow, who drink (the blood of the) veins CT 16 14 iv 26f. Then there is the instance McCarthy mentioned from Etana, also contained in the CAD entry for Damu: 3-"O netherworld, you have drunk the blood of my (sacrificial) lambs" **Update Nov.23 There is the Herald Demon, possibly identified with the Ma$kim, in the incantation text TMH 6 14 [ HS 1556] he is said to "He maliciously drank mankind's blood." See reply #13 on the Ur III Incantation thread Finally there is the our earlier instances, Sylt mentioned the Lamashtu line from "Early Incantations and Rituals" (van Djik)pg.26: 4- [ ]-x šar-ka i-ka-al "...she [Lamashtu] drinks blood" 5- And there is the well commented on Nergal line in which he may drink blood as a Dragon does "Nergal, dragon covered with gore, drinking the blood of living creatures!" SELECTED MAN-EATING / CANABALISM LINES: 1. Katz mentions a line from "The Instructions of Suruppak" which reads "On an unknown road at the edge of kur, the gods of the kur are man-eaters." 2. Descent of Ishtar, [Ishtar threatens] "I shall raise up the dead, and they shall eat the living. The dead shall outnumber the living!" 3. Nergal and Ereshkigal [Ereshkigal threatens]" "I shall raise up the dead, and they shall eat the living. The dead shall outnumber the living!" 4. Cyn's mention of 2 texts studied by Fauth that seem to feature flesh constumption by the Lilitu.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 13:36:26 GMT -5
** Refined July 31 **Posted by us4-he2-gal at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6397As for the Vampire post, this is a novel way to launch an initiative Sylt ;] I admire your scope here and style, you've touched on everything I know of as yet in terms of leads to vampirism in Sumerian sources. However we're missing my favorite part that is the discussion which - you like anyway. But discussion on all 8 leads at once would be far too chaotic so, I suggest 1 lead at a time, and to attempt to affirm their relevance if at all possible. Ultimately for classification as a vampiric entity I prefer instances of actual blood drinking because the question to me is not how many creatures in Mesopotamian were cannibalistic or parasitic, but which were vampiric? So I would follow Cynsanity on the need for actual blood drinking for classification. I notice as well there have been some excellent posts and materials suggested for Lilitu demons, I plan to review that in detail though sequentially due to the above reason. So it will be gotten to! I was just reading recently about Nergal in Diana Katz " The image of the netherworld in Sumerian sources" one of her points about Nergal I'd never taken into account was that in the third millennium Sumer was divided into north and south on the concepts of the netherworld. In the north, at Emeslam temple Nergal/ Meslamtaea represented the north Sumerian netherworld pantheon. And at the same time in the south, from the egida temple, Ereškigal and Ninazu headed the south Sumerian netherworld pantheon. "The two religious streams merged into one only in the second millennium, but it seems the constituents of the northern pantheon became more pronounced." So the marriage of Nergal and Ereškigal, the merging of their cults and the north/south netherworld pantheons seems to have occurred only after the Sumerians had ceased as a cultural entity. Certainly their marriage and the myth "Nergal and Ereskigal" is not only a later text, but as I come to realize, a realization of a later concept of netherworld deities and powers. - Due to recent demand (COLLEGEGUY!) for information on Nergal,. I've expanded what I was going to quote from Katz book - I'm now looking at her bio of Nergal on page 405. Its impossible to sum this level of detail without robing it of its direction, but Ive managed to stop short of typing it verbatim. This post attempts to cover Katz research on the origin of Nergal, the next post will hopefully get into more of his character. Nergal in Early Dynastic Sumer - Kiš.UnuWithin the same authors massive write up on Nergal on pg 405, the earliest attestation of the name Nergal is given as dKiš.Unu, found in the ED III god-lists from Fara, Abu- Salabikh and Ebla. There is a hymn from that same era associating this deity with the netherworld, and one scholarly suggestion is that the deities name also applies to his city, thus Kiš.Unu is also the name of Nergal's first cultic center..The appearance of the name in a cycle of hymns, if it does relate to Nergal, suggests he was important already in ED times, and in a list from Ebla he appears after Enlil, Enki and Inana. Something in Katz' epigraphic circling, which id have to type verbatim to detail, leads me to believe Kiš in this instance is read 'bull' and refers to Nergal, and Unu is to be read 'residence' so the name of the city -and the deity evidently would mean 'residence of the bull' [Kiš.Unu]. Evidently this is a sometime convention in the Sumerian literature for instance the name Larsa was sometimes rendered Ud.Unu ki, Ud meaning for example Sun/ light and referring to Utu - Larsa was the residence of the sun [Utu]. So although some have theorized the city Kiš.Unu equates to Kutha, Nergal's residence since the time of Naramsin, Katz suspects Nergals cult was moved to Kutha in the Old Akkadian [Sargonic] period, on the basis that Kutha was standardly written phonetically: gú- du 8-a ki and never refereed by geographical name, while other cities such as Larsa continued to be called such as Ud.Unu ki, this would be in sharp contrast to the writing of Nergal's first attested cult centre, Kiš.Unu. ( There are no indicators of what Nergals divine properties might have been in Kiš.Unu) In the Sargonic period The earliest manifestation of Nergal in Sargonic period is in the Temple Hymns, specifically hymn 36: etcsl t.4.80.1(E-ĝiškešda-kalama wr. [ é-g̃iš-kéš-da-kalam-ma] (Mešlamta-ea wr. [ dmeš3-lam-ta-e3-]) (Mešlam wr. [ meš3-lam-ma]) (Ud-šuš wr. [ ud-šu2-[uc]]) " 457-466. O E-ĝiškešda-kalama (House which is the bond of the Land), bull …… great strength among the gods, terrifying wild cow, wild bull which causes lament, Gudua, your quay is a low quay which bestows water, your interior is artfully built, your mace is a …… mace released from heaven, your platform is a lustrous platform spreading over Mešlam. Your prince, the mighty god, the sovereign of Mešlam, the fierce god of the underworld, the sovereign of Ud-šuš (Sunset), Nergal, Mešlamta-ea, has erected a house in your precinct, and taken his seat upon your dais. 467. 10 lines: the house of Nergal in Gudua." Based on the fact that the E-mešlam is not specified in the hymn, and that this hymn deviates in a number of ways from the structure of the other temple hymns, combined with the fact Katz has found E-giškešda-kalama on a temple list which lists elsewhere the E- meslam..The author suggests that they are two different temples, and that the hymn in the Sargonic or Old Akkadian period was to this original temple, E-giškešda-kalama , but that the extent version of the text we have had been altered somewhat (possibly a result of being recopied in O.B times to reflect Nergal's later position in Meslam). "This means that in the Old Akkadian period E-giškešda-kalama was a temple of Nergal and Hymn no.36 was dedicated to it. The significant deviations from the fixed structure suggest that in the long period of transmission from Old Akkadian to Old Babylonian periods, the hymn was modified to suit the contemporary religious trend." Katz suggests that E-giškešda-kalama was the name of Nergal's early temple in Kiš.Unu, which was perhaps a district in Mešlam or a chapel of the Emešlam. When Naramsin promoted Nergal's status, his move to Emešlam probably took place - this would have occurred not long after the writing of the Temple Hymns by Sargon's daughter. The fact that the name of Mešlamta-ea is found beside Nergals in the Temple Hymn, and not in the list of epiphets in previous lines, indicates to Katz that "rather then one god with two names, Mešlamta-ea is regarded as an individual deity next to Nergal in Emeslam.' In her write up of Mešlamta-ea (equally long and complex) she states Mešlamta-ea's name meant 'lad who comes out of the almond tree" and that he was an incarnation of the young dying god. From the time of Naramsin onward however, Nergal is firmly linked to the city of Kutha. Naramsin at that time is known to have refered to Nergal as 'maškim-lugal' an epiphet which proposes his war- like character. Further, Naramsin effectively "brought Nergal to the fore, and his military achievement accentuated Nergals warlike charactor." Naramsin credited Nergal and Damu with the success of his campaign into Armanum and Ebla and for his domination of the lands up to the "Upper Sea" [Mediterranean]. Although the cult of Nergal is not attested in Southern Sumer in this period, Katz believes it is possible to mark this point and time and space as the elevation of Nergal, and this was a direct result of socio-political environment, particularly Naramsin's reform which was sparked by a great revolt, in which Kutha took part in: "In the framework of this reform, and as a preparation for his own deification, Naramsin elevated the status of Nergal and presumably transfered his cult to Emešlam, the main temple of Kutha where he became the counterpart to Meslamtaea." The UrIII period and beyond: From the UrIII period a pair of dedication inscriptions from Sulgi's reign address first Nergal in Akkadian and secondly Mešlamta-ea in Sumerian. By way of explanation the author suggests the presence of "two ethnic groups within one community,each worshiped its own traditional god, rather than one god with two names." A number of Sulgi hymns underscore Nergal's warlike quality although a link to the netherworld is "merely implied." Katz points to a line in the Death or Ur-Nammu as the point in which Nergal is introduced to the south Sumerian literary tradition as an explicit netherworld deity in the line which refers to him as the "Enlil of the Netherworld" (although the authors reads this to mean that he has power over life and death via his war aspect, rather then implying that he is the ruler of the netherworld, which at this time in the south was still considered to be Ereškigal). Finally in Katz article on Nergal there is a good sum of the transaction of the cult location on pg.427: When Naramsin transfered the cult of Nergal from Kiš.Unu to Emešlam - "Since old religious traditions cannot cease abruptly and vanish, certainly not in a complex society, both deities [Nergal and Meslamtaea] were worshiped in parallel until the Ur III period. The offering-lists of that period prove that the cult of Meslamtaea did not decline, and that of Nergal did not flourish before the Old Babylonian period. It is not surprising, however, that, in the eighth year of šusin, Meslamtaea recieved offerings with Laz and šubula [wife of Nergal in O.B lists]. After two centuries of sharing their major cult center, half a century after Sulgi promoted Nergal in Southern Sumer, and at the twilight of Sumerian hegemony, Meslamtaea attained the identity of Nergal." This is the point the author designates as the merging of the two entities, though contradictions can be found for a singular entity before this point and multiple afterwords. Next post I hope to finish summing some of the point on Nergal, probably getting into some of the meat of his character which hopefully will prove helpful for the vampire question. cheers.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 13:55:53 GMT -5
** Refined August 1st ** Originally Posted by us4-he2-gal2 at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6403In the last post I was referencing Diana Katz book " The image of the netherworld in Sumerian sources" In specific the Nergal write up on pg.404. I notice the remaining pages are mostly a recap - so Ive also added some etcsl references below to supplement this look at Nergal. Naturalization in South Sumer:Nergals position in historic reality is attested in extent offering lists, However in contrast to his importance suggested in the Ur III literary epithet 'Enlil of the Netherworld' offering lists of the same period relate his share as quite "modest." Information from the administrative texts lead Katz to propose that Nergal's cult in south Sumer was limited to some small settlements, which most probably were inhabited "by Akkadians". This is in concurrence with his earlier promotion by a strong Akkadian leader (Naramsin). Referencing the Ur III period again Katz states "The naturalization of Nergal in southern Sumer was generated in Šulgi's court." Previously Mešlamta-ea had been worshiped in the south and yet it was Gilgamesh, and later Nergal (not Mešlamta-ea) who was featured in accounts of war. (This observation came as some surprise to me..of course I know the story of Gilgamesh etc..but that a deity would in any series of events be mythologically assuming the role of a deified mortal i.e Gilgamesh seems somewhat rare. Evidently with Nergals migration to the south this is how it occurred.) Katz refers to evidence of extensive military campaigns by Šulgi in the area east of the Tigris as a reason for the kings incorporation of Nergal into his circle of deities. These campaigns may have been prompted by an attack on Der, in Šulgi's 21st year, and by the next year Šulgi's name appeared deified for the first time. Previously Naramsin was the only king to have deified himself, so this constitutes a close parallel to Naramsin "whose deification, promotion of Nergal to leader of his army, and intensive military action seem to be related." She further states thats its possibly Šulgi was motivated by imperial motivations to follow suit, even at one point changing his royal title from ' lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri' to Naramsin's royal title ' lugal an-ub-da límmu-bu' or "King of the four regions (of the world)." She makes a final supporting observation which I think is brilliant, that being that in 'the Death of Ur-Nammu', that Ur-Nammu was presented as an equal of Gilgamesh in the netherworld pantheon, was perhaps an intentional effort to have his son (Šulgi) acquire "the theological legitimacy to become a god himself." So this is an explanation of how Nergal appeared in south Sumerian literary traditions via Sulgi's court theologians at that time, while at the same time Nergal was still receiving relatively little attention in the offering lists due to the retroactive nature of the cultic activity.. which Katz describes as having 'devotion to tradition'. To sum Katz dialogue here, this same devotion maintained for the most part, even in the more pliable literary tradition, the earlier belief of Ereshkigal as the ruler of the n.w. in the south, and Nergal and Mešlamta-ea remain (mostly) independent deities - at least until the Old Babylonian period. Katz' Etymology of the Name Nergal: Katz here utilize's a recent suggestion of Wiggermann's which "relieved us from the need to prove that NIR3 = NE3 > en = Emesal umun." The following dense explanation results, which Ill need to quote in full.. "An important step toward the better understanding of the name of Nergal and its development was recently suggested by Wiggermann. He points to the occurance of dNIN.KIŠ.UNU in an Old Akkadian inscription dedicated to the life of Naramsin. However, rather than identifying this deity with Erra, as Steinkeller does, Wiggermann argues that it is Nergal and that the name should be read nin.KIŠ. úrugal. Therefore, KIŠ is Nergal, the "bull," and the reading developed; NIN.URUGAL2 > en-úrugal > Emasal umun-úrugal, which indicates that he was a netherworld god." Supplementary material: To get a sense of what Nergal's character came to be, I've reviewed the following etcsl links. To say that he was bloodthirsty in places is safe enough, and yet its still more difficult to say he did at some point engage in blood drinking. In terms of the Sargonic era stuff touching on Naram-sin and Nergal, I personally only have "The cursing of Agade" [etcsl] and "The legend of Naram- sin" [B.Foster] available to me neither of which are really the material Katz utilizes. Some of the Ur III and later references are more readily available: -A Praise poem of Sulgi etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.4.2.24 [Ninazu speaking] "As if you [Sulgi] were Utu, your terror radiates in battle. As if you were Nergal, your battle-mace drools with gore and your spear reaches into the blood of the Land" - etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.4.2.21 [seems to indicate actually that at this point the names Meslamtaea and Nergal addressed the same warlike deity - see lines 14-16] An adab (?) to Nergal for Šulgi (?) (Šulgi U) unknown no. of lines missing 1-4. Nergal who ……, …… great awe, who …… the underworld -- its awesome radiance …… the battle-net, its awesomeness has filled heaven and earth. 5. 2nd sagbatuku. 6-12. Hero, wild bull with thick horns, …… like a cow, your terrifying name lets loose awe and fear. You fall on the rebel lands like the south wind. You are a bolt on the broad extent of the mountains. When you sit in E-mešlam, your desires are joyously fulfilled (?). The people assemble at your feet. 13. 2nd barsud. 14-16. Meslamta-ea, your supremacy in the rebel lands! You have encircled the rebel lands, O youth. Nergal, your supremacy in the rebel lands! 17-20. Your father loves you greatly. He has made your heroism known among the people. Your father Enlil loves you greatly. He has made your heroism known among the people. 21-23. Hero …… for the people, god roaming the mountains! You have …… the rebel lands. Nergal …… for the people, god roaming the mountains! 24-26. Wherever you stride, all their troops suffer. …… Ansan and Tidnum, Nergal, wherever you stride, all their troops suffer. 27. Sa-gida. 28-29. May you prolong the life of the hero Šulgi. …… to his strength, ……. 30. Its gisgigal. unknown no. of lines missing -The death of Ur-Namma (Ur-Namma A): etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.4.1.1 To Nergal, the Enlil of the nether world, in his palace, the shepherd Ur-Namma offered a mace, a large bow with quiver and arrows, an artfully made barbed dagger, and a multicolored leather bag for wearing at the hip. -Texts which l think date to a later period- - Uncertain origin/time period etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.15.3 A tigi to Nergal (Nergal C) [this one seems to center on Lagash, and to have Nergal and Meslamtaea combined, possibly late Sumerian] An adab to Nergal for Su-ilisu (Su-ilisu A) etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.5.2.1 - [This must date to the period of the Isin dynasty I believe that at least when Su-ilisu ruled. There are a number of curiosities in this text one is: "25-28. In the west, Utu has shone forth for you, and an awe- inspiring dais has been erected for you! Nergal, you, lord, are one who has the power to carry off and to bring back (?)! In the east, lord, ……, you are imbued with a terrible great awesomeness; Nergal, your praise and renown are such as to unleash awe and terror!" - Carry off and bring back in the east, Im not sure if this may be a reference travel to and from the netherworld, or no...- and of course, theres the line of the hour: "13-16. Warrior with head held high, respected lord, son who rises up to protect his father, Nergal, angry sea, inspiring fearsome terror, whom no one knows how to confront, youth whose advance is a hurricane and a flood battering the lands, Nergal, dragon covered with gore, drinking the blood of living creatures!" - A hymn to Nergal (Nergal B) etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.15.2[This would seem to me to be somewhat late Sumerian as well, notice Erra is featured in the text addressing Nergal. So this dates to the time in which they were associated by not yet merged as B&G say "The gods Nergal and Erra were originally separate deities, but later became so closely identified so as to lose their independent characters." (pg.135). Also notice the mention of Lugal-era at the bottem, but in unclear context.] - shir-namgala to Meshlamta-eda and Lugal-era for Ibbi-Suen (Ibbi-Suen B): composite text etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr2452.htmA[This seems to represent a further development in Nergals character though in keeping with the general rule of haphazard and/or bewildering chronology, it appears to have been written by the 5th and last in the dynasty of Ur-Nammu, Ibbi-Suen (I think this name equates to Ibbi-Sin unless otherwise corrected.) This hymn features Meslamta-eda and Lugal-era variant spellings of which may be I believe, Meslamtaea and Lugal-irri in which case B&G say on them: "Lugal-irra was a minor god whose name probably means 'mighty lord' and who was identified as Nergal in late tradition. Together with his twin, the god Meslamtaea, Lugal-irri was worshipped at Kisiga, a town in northern Babylonian. Perhaps they originally were thought to stand at the entrance to the underworld ready to dismember the dead as they entered: certainly they were considered to be efficacious in guarding doorways, and in Neo-Assyrian times small images of them were buried in entrances, Lugal-irra on the left and Meslamta-ea on the right, identical figures with horned caps each carrying an ace and a mace. Astronomically, Lugal-irra and Meslamtaea were named the Great Twins (Gemini)." So Lugal-irra would take the form of Nergal or vice versa in "late tradition" the question is at the point Ibbi-Suen had this this hymn written was that identification already made? ] So thats a preliminary sketch of some sources on Nergal. Still remaining is to decide whether to include or exclude him as a possible vampiric entity in Sumer. Cheers.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 14:06:59 GMT -5
Posted by us4-he2-gal2 at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6407My last input regarding Nergal as a vampire: In the last post Nergal II, I mentioned a line from Su-ilisu hymn to Nergal (from the Isin period) which read ""25-28. In the west, Utu has shone forth for you, and an awe-inspiring dais has been erected for you! Nergal, you, lord, are one who has the power to carry off and to bring back (?)! In the east, lord, ……, you are imbued with a terrible great awesomeness; Nergal, your praise and renown are such as to unleash awe and terror!" - Still a curiousity..It sounded to me as though this may refer to some sort of ability to bring back from the netherworld, at for example the place of sunrise. I dont fully understand how that could be, it does touch quite closely on the Sisig thread however, particularly when its noted that in some versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is not Utu who Enki commands to raise Enkidu from the netherworld but Nergal... i.e Dalley's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh Akkadian version, pg123 "He spoke to to the warrior [Ukur], 'Warlike young man [Ukur], You must open a hole in the Earth now (?), So that the spirit [of Enkidu can come out of the Earth like a gust of wind]." Ukur Dalley explains as being a name of Nergals. Soo..Im not sure we needed yet another twist there in regards to Sisig, but it does possible help to explain the above Su-ilisu line, this possibly suggests that at some point Nergal took over a prerogative previously assigned to Utu, and perhaps this text in the Isin period is an early record of that. Moving on to the question of Nergals Vampiric identification - that being explicitly does he DRINK blood in Mesopotamian or specifically Sumerian sources: Reading through M. Cohens "Cultic Calenders of the Ancient Near East" would seem to substantiate Katz ruling on the state of his sacrificial cult in south Sumer. There are a few reference's to a 'festival of Nergal' one occurring in O.B Mari for example, but very scanty detail associated with these, indicators of a washing of Nergals cultic statue, and that in some incarnations of the observance a chariot was used to transport the statue of Nergal, and offerings were made. Absent is any unusual or conspicuous detail on blood -human or animal- that would be interesting to us here. Indicators from "Erra and Ishum" (Oxford World Classics/Dalley 2000 pg.300) clearly point to a blood thirstiness in the latter incarnation of Nergal to match earlier sources, but a definitive lack of blood drinking at least in this line "You [Erra/Nergal] have made their blood flow like water in the drains of public square's. You have opened their veins and let the river carry off their blood. Ellil has cried "Woe!" and clutched his heart. [He has risen up from] his dwelling. An irredeemable curse is set in his mouth, He has sworn not to drink the river's waters, He shuns their blood and will not enter into Ekur." So taking into account the texts surveyed in the last post Nergal II, and what cultic references i can draw on, and his descriptions among the various scholars, I can find only one line that possibly alludes to blood-drinking in any strict sense of the word. That is of again, the line Sylt touched on, and Cyn touched on, the line from Su- ilisu's hymn from the Isin period, reading: "13-16. Warrior with head held high, respected lord, son who rises up to protect his father, Nergal, angry sea, inspiring fearsome terror, whom no one knows how to confront, youth whose advance is a hurricane and a flood battering the lands, Nergal, dragon covered with gore, drinking the blood of living creatures!" As for the power of this particular line here to serve our purpose's..Im ultimately doubtful. It certainly evokes the right imagery, but I'm not sure it can be taken a face value in that way. After reviewing an article on "Sumerian Similes" by S. Kramer (Journal of the American Oriental Society v. 89 1969) I would say this line falls close to such a categorization. Kramer treats similes related to the dragon or 'Usumgal' (unfortunately not referring to this particular instance): "The mythological creatures and monsters in similes are ....(Dragon): Inanna filled the (inimical) land with venom like an Usumgal; weapons pour venom into the enemy '"like an Usumgal prepared to bite" ; weapons devour corpses "like an Usumgal" ; Enmerkers herald is said to travel as swiftly "as an Usumgal seeking his prey in the steppe." The closest mirror to what we have with Nergal is the 3rd simile, one example of which can be found at etcsl: Ninurta's return to Nibru: a šir-gida to Ninurta: c.1.6.1 "Now I have reestablished my heroic strength in the mountains. On my right, I bear my Mows-down-a-myriad. On my left, I bear my Crushes-a- myriad. I bear my Fifty-toothed-storm, my heavenly mace. I bear the hero who comes down from the great mountains, my No-resisting-this- storm. I bear the weapon which devours corpses like a dragon, my agasilig axe. I bear my ……." Simile is of course a vary common poetic device used by the Sumerians, and seems dependent on the setup 'like a' ...there are 590 result for a search for the english 'like a' nearly all if not all are examples of simile. Whether our Nergal line is a simile..im not sure. It doesn't contain "like a" but I believe 'drinking the blood of living creatures' is a behavior borrowed from the dragon, the one covered with gore. So while Sulgi may be fast because his is "like a mountain goat running to its shelter" (Kramer) perhaps the line should be Nergal is savage because 'he is [like a] dragon covered in gore, drinking the blood of living creatures'. In other words what might be meant by the line, is an illustration of Nergal's savageness via comparison to the observed habits of what is -universally- construed as a deadly and fearsome creature. So although I haven't yet been able to factor in references from the incantation series regarding Nergal, I would say due to significant lack of indicators of Nergals blood-drinking -and the question of how literally the one source can actually be taken- I would opt to remove Nergal for the list of Vampiric entities in Sumer. Of course, barring the objection or the counter-point of any parties following this thread. Cheers
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 14:16:30 GMT -5
posted by Ryversylt at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6412--- In TabletofDestiny@yahoogroups.com, "ryversylt" <ryversylt@...> wrote: > I'll have to post a little linguistic analysis of the name Nergal when > I get a chance, and am on my other computer. I did a bit of digging > some time back that I am reasonably comfortable with. you could take it as being more similar to Nir Gal nir: n., prince, lord [NIR archaic frequency: 45; concatenates 2 sign variants]. v., to stretch, reach, extend; to raise high; to winnow, clean grain; to overcome, vanquish (to be high + to go out + to flow). adj., victorious. So perhaps Great Lord Or more likely you could go this direction: ér-ra: mourning, lamentation ('tears' + nominative). the ér seems to be an abbreviation of Nir as used here: é-a-nir-ra: house of mourning ('house' + 'lamentation' + genitive). Or if you combine ní + ér ní; ne4: fear; respect; frightfulness; awe. ér, ír: n., tears; lamentation; prayer; complaint. v., to weep. You might get Fear / Aura + Tears / Lamentation Perhaps Nergal means Aura of Great Lamentation. That's my take in any case. I'm no linguistic expert though. (I got aura from this because fear is occasionally translated as Aura in some texts I am familiar with.) Looking into another of his names yields: MEŠ.LAM.TA.È.A MEŠ: I'm still having a little trouble with this element. I suspect it translates to something like "place" or "Location" lam: n., abundance, luxuriance; almond tree; netherworld [LAM archaic frequency: 47; concatenates 3 sign variants]. v., to grow luxuriantly; to make grow luxuriantly (la, 'abundance' + to be). ta, dá: n., nature, character [TA archaic frequency: 34; concatenates 6 sign variants]. prep., from; to; for; by means of (ablative-instrumental noun suffix and verbal prefix; as a noun suffix can be a locative with remote deixis, as in an-ta and ki-ta). è: (cf., éd). éd, è; i: to go out, emerge; to send forth; to lead or bring out; to rise; to sprout; to be or become visible; to appear as a witness (the final d appears in marû conjugation) [ED2 archaic frequency: 12; concatenates 2 sign variants]. a, e4: n., water; watercourse, canal; seminal fluid; offspring; father; tears; flood. interj., alas!. prep., locative suffix - where; in; when - denotes movement towards or in favor of a person. def. article, nominalizing suffix for a noun or noun clause, denoting 'the'. MEŠ (Place?) LAM (Netherworld) TA (By means of) È (Come forth) A (The)
He and his twin were guardians of the gate to the Netherworld. They guarded the place where the dead came forth into the netherworld. In that context the name makes sense.
If taken element by element you would get a confusing name that might have to do with sprouts or living things, but I believe my translation makes a little more sense over all.
-Sylt
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 14:24:14 GMT -5
First of all, I know I have been very quiet, but that's the start of the semester... and stuff like that :/ So, I am working on things for here, but my internet-activity isn't that high at the moment. I have posted an article by Lambert on the subject of Nergal's name; for those who are interested, I also uploaded scans from my 'Manuel d'Epigraphie Akkadienne' so that you can actually compare the signs he mentions (I don't have the other sign lists he's referring to, and can't scan stuff in the library, high-tech-institute that we are...), but if interested, I can dig up the rest of the arguments about the name of Nergal. That said, on to the topic at hand. Ryversylt, I find your conclusions, while ingenuitive, a little bit flawed. You assume resp. suggest a phonetic reading of the name, and whilst that is perfectly acceptable, it seemed to me as if you are dismissing the cuneiform writing for the name. Although not every sign does have a specific image as basis for it, most of them do; I was taught that, if a word or term in general, or especially names, do not make much sense grammatically at first glance, to use the "good old Sumerological practice" (in the words of my professor) of looking as the single signs that make up the term, or in this case name, and try to get some sort of meaning from them. Whilst the name Nergal might very well phonetically transcribe to your first suggestion of Nir-Gal, the cuneiform signs used to write the name point to a different direction. The article by Lambert (should be in the files section if I didn't screw it up) mentions archaic writings of the deity's name with the sign KISH. He is addressing the issue in the essay, and I have not yet looked into that, so I will confine myself to the writing I am familiar with and which has been used from EDIII on. d.(n)GIR3.URU.GAL I have scanned the sign GIR3, so that you can look at it if you don't have a sign-list at hand. As my keyboard is incapable of making it possible for me to use special characters for correct transcription, I will write the sign as NGÌR, as the initial phonem is the specifically Sumerian /ng/ phonem and not a /g/. The sign NGÌR is, as is commonly held (and after staring at that sign for a lot of the past years, I can't say anything against that) to be the depiction of a bull's head. This seems to be the oldest form of the sign. Considering the fact that the bull was seen as a mighty, wild, furious beast, I think that this might be a hint as to why the sign is used in the deity's name. Also, consider the older tradition of Ereshkigala's husband being Gugalanna (GU4-GAL-AN-A(K)), the "Great Bull of Heaven". Another reading for NGÌR is PIRING, lion (probably also mountain lion, but that's a matter of context and still disputed). Nergal's weapon is a double-headed mace with lions' heads, and in those few cylinder seals that are tentatively connected to him, he is portrayed with his foot (I think it is the right foot, but I would have to look the seals up) resting upon a lion, his lion-headed double-mace in one hand. Iconographically, that would make sense. The sign is also used to denote the deity Shumugan (sem. Shakkan), Lord of Wild Beasts; earliest renderings of that deity show him as a giant spotted feline, probably a leopard. I don't think that this is entirely accidental. However, I digress. There is also, of course, the reading NÈ, strength, force. If you look at the scan I provided of the relevant page, you might notice the entry "d.NÈ-IRI11-GAL" for Nergal; I am using the 196*-edition of Labat's 'Manuel' (as somehow, every newer edition mysteriously vanished from the library, and thus, had to copy that). In the meantime, there have been advances in regard to the reading of Nergal's name; the entry reflects the old notion that the name is to be read purely phonetically, with which most scholars these days disagree. Besides from that, consider that the EME.GIR word "EN" can also be "NE" in the EME.SAL dialect (don't quote me on the indices, though, I currently have no Emesal-book close to me to look it up). That would indeed be handy - then again, the question arises: If that is indeed so (yes, I am doubting myself until I look it up), why is the name of Nergal partly written in the women's tongue? However, thinking of the fact that male deities had female ENs, and vice versa, that might shed some light on it. I'll look it up, though. URU (or ERI, or IRI, or ERI, or ÜRÜ, whatever you prefer) usually means "city". The reading of it as URUGAL in this specific case (which was one of the terms for the Netherworld) has been proposed, with GAL as a Mater Lectionis. Whether Mater Lectionis or not, we definitely have a city here. By merely looking at the signs, we can come to several conclusions: - "Bull of the Great City" - "Bull of the Netherworld" - "Lion of the Great City" - "Lion of the Netherworld" - "Lord of the Great City" - "Lord of the Netherworld" - "Strength/Force of the Great City" - "Strength/Force of the Netherworld" Given that Nergal's association with the Netherworld is rather late, I think that the reading of URUGAL-gal as Netherworld can be ruled out. However, I'm no great expert, so maybe something will come up in the future that contradicts my personal opinion. As the reading NÈ seems to be directly related to the concept of the Bull (cuneiform sign) and that of the Lion, I dare say that it's very likely that the /NE/ part of Nergal's name (phonetically speaking) encompasses all of the three concepts. I hope that makes sense. > > Looking into another of his names yields: > > MEÅ .LAM.TA.È.A > MEÅ : I'm still having a little trouble with this element. I suspect it > translates to something like "place" or "Location" > > lam: n., abundance, luxuriance; almond tree; netherworld [LAM archaic > frequency: 47; concatenates 3 sign variants]. > v., to grow luxuriantly; to make grow luxuriantly (la, 'abundance' + > to be). > ta, dá: n., nature, character [TA archaic frequency: 34; concatenates > 6 sign variants]. > prep., from; to; for; by means of (ablative-instrumental noun suffix > and verbal prefix; as a noun suffix can be a locative with remote > deixis, as in an-ta and ki-ta). > > è: (cf., éd). > > éd, è; i: to go out, emerge; to send forth; to lead or bring out; to > rise; to sprout; to be or become visible; to appear as a witness (the > final d appears in marû conjugation) [ED2 archaic frequency: 12; > concatenates 2 sign variants]. > > a, e4: n., water; watercourse, canal; seminal fluid; offspring; > father; tears; flood. > interj., alas!. > prep., locative suffix - where; in; when - denotes movement towards > or in favor of a person. > def. article, nominalizing suffix for a noun or noun clause, > denoting 'the'. > MEÅ (Place?) LAM (Netherworld) TA (By means of) È (Come forth) A (The) > > He and his twin were guardians of the gate to the Netherworld. They > guarded the place where the dead came forth into the netherworld. In > that context the name makes sense. > > If taken element by element you would get a confusing name that might > have to do with sprouts or living things, but I believe my translation > makes a little more sense over all.
MES is usually translated as "youth", "young man", "young warrior" and the like. Consider MES-KALAM-DÙG. LAM is generally translated as "tree" (a special kind of tree, but no one has any idea what tree, although I might find something if I dig through the library long enough on a free day).
Also, consider that, in the text "Ishum and Erra", the cult statue of Marduk has to be carved out of the "MESLAM"-tree. Without doing the tremendous work of rolling over to my desk, removing the canvas and taking the actual cuneiform and translation, I remember that this MESLAM-tree is supposed to have its roots in the Abzu and its branches up in the Heavens of the Gods. When I last talked about this to my teachers, they agreed with me that this seems an awful lot like an Axis Mundi metaphor.
In my opinion, Meslamta'ea should be analysed like this:
MES-LAM-TA È.A (-ta being the Ablativus Separativus postposition, and È.a being a hamtu-participle)
Depending on the interpretation of the MES-LAM as either a word-linking ("Tree-youth" or something akin to that) or a reference to that enigmatic MESLAM-tree, we would get either
"From the tree-youth he arose" or "From the MESLAM-tree he arose"
Personally, I think the latter one would make more sense, especially when taking that quite possible Axis Mundi connection into account. As the MESLAM-tree, with its roots in the Abzu and its branches in Heaven, connects the world as such (the realm of the living and the dead) with the Heaven in which the DINGIRANNA (DINGIR-AN-A(K)) dwell; the nature of Nergal himself is a rather worldly one (in my words: rather Malkuth-based) - plague, war, destruction, the burning sun etc. -, but he is a son of Enlil, and thus one of the DINGIRANNA, the heavenly Gods. However, his "functions" are VERY closely related to death, which is inevitably connected to the Netherworld. In this interpretation, Nergal would not be bound to one of the realms - Heaven, world of the living, Netherworld - but be part of all three of them, in a way transcending the limits of each.
Just some thoughts...
cyn
[***Admin note- For the sake econimizing some space here, as oppose to posting it, Ill just mention my reply to this is at the bottem of groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6465]
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 14:45:55 GMT -5
Posted by Cynsanity at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6439Funnily enough, what you say about the metaphor-aspect of the Sumerian hymns and literary texts is something me and two colleagues have been dealing with since the beginning of the last semester (our professor discovered his interest in metaphors and theories behind them). I haven't looked deeply into this, as I am currently too busy with merely translating things and studying for several exams, but from what I have read on the topic and learned from discussions with my professor and my colleague, I am feeling a little bit ambivalent towards that topic. In cases like hymns of "mortals" like Shulgir, it is, in my opinion, just metaphor. I don't believe that Shulgir himself or his scribes or his subjects believed the lugal to literally be like a lion, or like a great dragon. However, it is the case of Gods in which I feel a little bit "torn". Of course, the epitheta are symbolic and metaphoric (take Inana(k) for example - she is described as ritually pure and as a, erm, sexually very active woman in texts), but they still convey essential parts of the respective Gods' very being. Inana(k) for example is ALWAYS ritually pure, even when she is described as a woman enjoying sexual intercourse, as a seductress of men and gods, even as a whore. No matter what she does with whom, she is always ritually pure, considered a KI.SIKIL (lit. pure earth/soil/ground/place). Ishkur is often described as the raging thunderstorm, which in his case possibly is because of his inherent nature. And so on. Nergal's inherent, essential nature is that of war, plague, bloodshed, rage... etc. The metaphor of the dragon covered in gore, drinking the blood of his enemies, might be just that - a metaphor. However, it also describes his character pretty good. The question I myself ask here is "how do we define a God?"... I mean, if we take the lines you mentioned literally, it means that Nergal drinks the blood of the enemies. Blood is a very physical substance. How does a God drink blood? Does he literally "manifest" physically? Is the blood a metaphor? If yes, for what? And if it is a metaphor for something (like life-energy etc.) - why did the Sumerians and the people of Mesopotamia in general use the term "blood"? Although the languages of the Ancient Near East are very poetical and very rich with metaphor, the term "blood" has, to my knowledge, never been used to denote something else than, well, blood. And if we consider the "drinking of blood" to refer to blood-sacrifice (whether by killing a sacrificial victim, or by spilling the blood of an enemy, which would probably be considered an act of piety and some sort of sacrifice) - is that still vampiric? I think the main questions here are the definitions of "vampiric" and that of what constitutes a God, or "what is a God?". But that's just me at 3 AM... cyn
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 13, 2007 15:03:02 GMT -5
Hello all. I'm still reviewing the Possible Vampiric entities in Sumer, so far we've looked at Nergal, I then went into an aside about Blood ritual in Mesopotamia, Hopefully this post will bring the Gidim/Etemmu into question. This is more less a sketch rather then the a final attempt to link blood drinking to the gidim. Ghosts in Mesopotamia are something I've always thought about, but have been difficult to pin down for me in that the literature does not provide a detailed accounting besides a descent or two, and most scholarly works I own dont dwell on the matter of gidim - even books specifically on the Sumerian netherworld. So here is what I can pull together on the topic - first I have a definition I found via books.google which I think is excellent:
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible by Karel van der Toorn, Pieter Willem van der Horst, and Bob Becking [under "Eţemmu" an entry I believe that was written by T. Abusch given that his name appears at the bottom. In most cases I have not been able to reproduce the special charactors for this article]
Eţemmu "I. Eţemmu is the main term for 'ghost' in Akkadian. It is the primary Akkadian equivalent or translation of Sum gidim, from which word it may derive. The term etemmu seems to underlie th biblical 'ittim [first i is accented] in Isa 19:3, where however the final mem is treated as if it were the Hebrew marker of the masculine plural. II. Eţemmu is a spirit, more properly a ghost. Wind imagery is associated with ghosts (and demons) - note the use of lil [accented i] for 'ghost' (->Lilith). Ghosts are heard, felt and especially seen, particularly in dreams. Ghosts are also designated by or associated with 'divinity'/ Of particular significance is the etiology of etemmu found in the Old Babylonian Atrahasis epic I 206-230. There, mankind is created from a mixture of clay and the flesh and blood of a slain god. This god's name is We-ilu, and he is characterized as one who has temu, 'understanding, intelligence' or perhaps even 'psyche'. Note the similarity in sound and the punning between awilu and we-ila and between we-e..tema and eţemmu. Thus, when alive, mankind receive both its life and the name awilu, 'man', from this god (a)we-ilu. But also because of this god and man's divine origin, mankind survives after death in the form of a ghost, and this too is signaled by a name; for this text implicitly treats eţemmu, 'ghost', as having been formed from the combination of the We of the god's name and his temu. After death, what remains is the lifeless body and some form of intangible, but visible and audible 'spirit'. The body must be buried; otherwise, the ghost will have no rest and will not find its place in the community of the dead, usually associated with the netherworld. In addition, the dead are to be the recipients of ongoing mortuary rites, which include invocations of the name of the deceased, presentation of food and libation of water. In this way the dead are cared for and their memory is preserved. The dead may be remembered as individuals for up to several generations and then become part of the ancestral family (etem kimti). It needs always to be emphasized that Mesopotamian burial and mortuary rituals as well as beliefs about the dead are not simply an autonomous area of religious life; they also reflect social structure and psychological experience. In any case, care for the dead may provide an occasion for the maintenance of social bonds. The living and dead maintain a permanent relationship and form an ongoing community. Dead and living kin in Mesopotamia are Dependant upon each other and therefore their relationship will naturally reflect or express both hostility and love. Normally the dead body was buried and burial allowed for the preservation and maintenance of the deceased's identity after death and for his continued connection with both the living and dead members of the family. Burial is crucial, for if a corpse is left unburied and/or is destroyed by animals, fire, or the like, the dead person cannot be integrated into the structured community of the dead and thereby into the ongoing and continuous community of the living and the dead. He loses his human community and human identity. This is not the only fate of those who do not receive burial immediately after death. The same fate awaits the dead who are disinterred and whole skeletal remains are destroyed. In some cases, the remains are so totally transformed and disintegrated that the dead loses all vestiges of human identity. The unburied or disinterred may become roaming and troublesome ghosts; more important, some texts suggest that they are relegated to the formless and chaotic world sometimes associated with steppe and winds, and may even become part of the demonic world that is neither human nor god, male nor female. Hence gidim/eţemmu may become associated with the demonic class udug/utukku and even be so designated. Lack of burial and/or destruction of the body often occur accidentally and belongs psychologically together with the fear of death; such treatment of the body may also be imposed as a punishment for a crime. It is among the most dreadful sanctions of Mesopotamian society."
[Here might be some explanation of the 'burnt burials' found in the proximity of the Royal tombs of Ur by Wooley, burnt burials apparently being present in some 2% or approx 13 graves he unearthed. Wooley described "There is no cremation here. The body was laid in the grave in the ordinary way and in the traditional attitude. Then, it would seem, a fire was lit in the grave closest to the head of the dead man and allowed to burn itself out before the earth was flung back into the grave shaft. Nearly always the marks of burning were confined, so far as we can see, to the skull and its immediate neighborhood. "]
Abusch continues:
" Information about the condition of the dead is found in a variety of sources. Particularly worthy of note are a) rituals, especially therapeutic ones, that deal with ghosts and their effects on humans, b) 'descents' to the netherworld, and c) curses that describe the various evils which may befall human beings. a) Magical and medical texts that deal with ghosts usually focus on those ghosts who plague the living. The topos of a restless and troublesome ghost is particularly prevalent. Ghosts who plague the living may either belong to one's own family or be strangers who have attached themselves to the victim. These ghosts are often said to have not been provided with mortuary rites or, even worse, to have not received a proper burial in the first place. Mention must also be made of the dead who have led unfulfilled lives and are drawn back to the world of the living, either out of envy or malice, or out of the desire to complete 'unfinished business'. Various physical and psychological symptoms are attributed to ghostly seizures in therapeutic texts. Notable, in addition, is the frequent mention of visions of the dead, often in dreams. Some therapeutic texts prescribe material cures (e.g. potions, salves); others operate more in the magical and symbolic realms and try to rid the victim of the ghost either by providing the ghost with proper burial and/or mortuary treatment or by performing some other form of expulsion. In other instances, ghosts - usually the family manes (eţem kimti) - are invoked to help the living by taking one or another form of evil down to the netherworld. Of great interest, especially in view of the aforementioned biblical passage (and similar passages which mention the ob and yid-de oni though not the iţţim), are attempts to raise the dead for purposes of necromancy. One designation of the necromancer is mušēli eţemmi. b) Among the 'descents' , pride of place should perhaps go to the descent of Enkidu to the netherworld in the Sumerian Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld (//Gilg. Tablet XII) and in the later Gilg. Tablet VII. In the former - which represents an early text- the state of the dead is described in terms of and related to the human support system (e.g number of children), the manner death and the treatment of the body. In the main, the dead are pale imitations of the living - they are human in form but seem to lack animation and energy. In later descriptions, by contrast, the vision of the dead is more horrific and shows us a netherworld inhabited by monsters and demons and dead who no longer looks human. Here, mention should be made especially of 'The Netherworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince' as a late text which exhibits the horrific vision of the netherworld. (SAA 3 [1989] no.32). Equally illuminating historically as regards changes in the idea of the netherworld is the graphic description of the dead and of the netherworld in th opening lines of the Descent of Ishtar. To the dark house, dwell- ing of Erkalla's god/ To the house which those who enter cannot leave / On the road where traveling is one-way only / To the house where those who enter are deprived of light / Where dust is their food, clay their bread / They see no light, they dwell in darkness / They are clothed like birds, with feathers / Over the door and the bolt, dust has settled. (S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia [Oxford/New Yord 1989] 155:4-11) Here I would make several historical observations. Firstly, it is significant that the older Descent of Inana (from which Descent of Ishtar derives) does not focus upon or even contain this type of description. Moreover, in the later text, the dead are described as birds and not humans. Furthermore, the description of the netherworld in the later text is itself a alter image, one that has been superimposed upon the earlier vision of the netherworld as a city which is entered through the gates and in which the dead are housed or even imprisoned. Its secondary nature is clear from the fact that the house of the dead is here described as one whose door and bolt are covered with dust, for the earlier image - an image which is even used of Ishtars own descent later in the text- is that of gates through which the dead constantly go and which therefore would not be covered by dust. This image of the dusty netherworld and with it the image of the dead as birds would seem to derive from that of a tomb or even a ruin and/or a cave. More than the earlier text, these later versions serve to draw a sharper line and a greater contrast between the living and the dead. c) Often, texts whose purpose is to maintain or protect the 'status quo' (e.g. to boundary stones, treaties, laws, building and tomb inscriptions, etc.) include sanctions in the form of curses. Notable among these curses are various threats associated with death: death itself, denial of burial, destruction of the corpse, deprivation of rites which provide care for the dead. Most powerful are those curses which seem to suggest that the transgressor will not only suffer death but will also be excluded, one way or another from the organized community of the dead. On occasion, it appears that the transgressor is punished whether he is dead of alive; he does not escape retribution. Thus, the living criminal is killed, his ghost made to wander, and even his remains destroyed. For his part, the criminal who had died before being punished is deprived of mortuary rites; moreover, his burial may be reversed by exhumation and, occasionally, his remains destroyed. His ghost, too, is this excluded from the community of the dead and made to wander. (Passages such as CH rev xxxvii, 34-40 and VTE 476-477 -- "above, among the living, may he (Shamash)/ they (the great gods) uproot him/you; below, in the earth, may he/they deprive his/your ghost of water" -- may stipulate not only two sequential punishments for the same person, but also two separate, parallel punishments for either eventuality). The etemmu, then, does not escape punishment and may even lose its human identity. In this construction, as I understand it, the criminal must not only be killed but must also be kept from being integrated or reintegrated into the netherworld. For the netherworld and the heavens form a connected structure or even a continuum, and if the criminal were allowed to remain in the netherworld, he would find a place in the cosmic state. This approach to sanction involves the exclusion of the transgressor from the organized cosmos of the divine, the living, and the dead. It forms one of the underlying principals of Sargonid treaty ideology and explains the 'vengeful' behavior of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal to the corpses and skeletons of those who violated their treaty obligations. It operates no less in the symbolic sphere as evidenced, for example, by the anti-witchcraft ceremony Maqlu ('Burning'). Maqlu took place at the time of the annual reappearance of ghosts in Abu. One of its central purposes was to ensure that all witches be expelled and kept outside the organized social and cosmic community. 'Live' witches were judged and destroyed; 'dead' witches were captured and expelled. Thus, all witches were to be prevented from having a proper burial. They were deprived of burial in order to prevent them from finding a place in the netherworld and consequently the cosmic state. III. In the Hebrew Bible the 'ittim are mention in Isa. 19:3: in an oracle again Egypt it is stated that Yahweh will "frustrate the spirit of Egypt and destroy their plans". In a reaction to this prophecy of doom the Egyptians are expected to intensify their divinatory practices among which are "the consulting of mediums and the asking of the 'ittum for advice".
An excellent entry I think, valuable in many places.. I particularly like his mention of necromancy, insight into the expeling and destroying of bodies and ghosts, though his ideas regarding the tangibility/visibility of ghosts will conflict with what I quote from Katz below. I also like that that he's pointed out the 3 main sources for detail of the gidim. It's definitely true, so far as I can see, that the main body of literature itself is sparse in detailing the gidim, at least a search for 'gidim' at etscl with reveal no particular wealth of information.. So since of Abusch's sources b) descents are known already to us and in c) I could hardly add anything about curses at this time, I'll attempt to speak on a). so far as I can tell gidim was featured as an agent of illness in the incantations only as early as the O.B. period [Cunningham 1997]
- An idea of their effect on the victim might be gleaned from 'paper13.pdf' by Erica Couto-Ferreira who referenced medical and incantation texts:
"Symptoms produced by the action of the eEemmu [Etemmu/Gidim] The main symptoms that ghosts produced are terror, panic and fright, as they usually appear once and again before their victims. Many of the medical prescriptions dealing with ghosts intended to cure the patient by making them disappear. [the ghosts I believe] There is also an affection called "the hand of the ghost" ($u-gidim-ma), that avoids concluding identification. The symptoms described include changes of body temperature, convulsions, paralysis, ringing ears, delirium, vertigo, vomits. It could refer to some kind of epilepsy, or also to serier cases of infection, although it is hard to propose and conclusive interpretation." [ Black and Green pg.102 comment that the hand symbolizes control or seizure i.e 'hand of Samas' 'hand of Ishtar' 'hand of the ghost'. They state 'small models of hands, made from stone, bone or shell, were common amulets in the Early Dynastic Period, and are known occasionally from later periods." But don't specify the significance.]
There's also some instance's of symptoms cited in CAD pg.400 under "[etemmu] as cause of disease": "if his epigastruium is hot, and his intestines inflamed, (this is) "seizure" by a ghost" also "if, in the grip of a ghost, a man's temples hurt" and "incantation for the case (that) in the grip of a ghost a man's neck hurts."
-Incantation against ghost found in "From Distant Days" pg.409 By B. Foster. From an undetermined period probably post O.B.
"The ghost which has set upon me, keeps harassing me, and [does not quit me] day or [nig]ht, Be it a stranger ghost, Be it a forgotten ghost, Be it a ghost without a name, Be it a ghost who has no one to provide for it, Be it a ghost of someone who [has no one to invoke its name], Be it a ghost of someone killed by a weapon, Be it a ghost of someone who died for a sin again a god or for a crime against a king [Place] it [in the care of the ghosts of its family], May it accept this and let me go free!"
-Instance's of 'evil ghost' and 'ghost' in "Forerunners to Udughul" by M..J. Geller: I'll quote just the lines that feature the 'evil ghost' or the 'ghost'. Lines mentioning the evil ghost seem most often to be in association with either the seven, or the galla-demon.
Evil ghost: p.21 "While the [evil ghost] and evil Galla seized his body," {As part of the Seven}
p.29 "Evil Udug, [evil Ala-demon, evil ghost, evil bailiff], [do not approach] my body, [do not pass] before me."
p.31 "The evil ghost, which is let loose in the street, makes a man into a corpse."
p.45 {The seven} "Evil Udug, evil Ala, Evil ghost, evil Galla demon, Dimme, Dima, Dimme-Lagab demons be you adjured by heaven, be you adjured by earth." {note This is what Cunningham refers to as Text 90, Dimme-Lagab = Ahhazu}
p.55 "and the evil ghost and evil Galla-demon [do not sleep]" {second association between Galla/Gidim}
p.63 "so that the evil ghost and evil Galla-demon may depart;" {third}
p.65 "and the evil ghost or evil Galla-demon block the man walking at night in the thoroughfare, an overpowering storm sparing nothing." {4th}
p.73 "The evil Udug, evil Ala, evil ghost and evil Galla-demons came out of the Netherworld."
p.75 "When the strong copper drum - the ['Hero of Heaven'] - [may boom out its fearsome] noise (it is) so that the evil Udug or Ala-demon, [evil ghost or Galla- demon withdraw from his body remove their body). With semes-flous, [which is unpleasant for a ghost], [encircle] the bed's location. O evil Udug or Ala-demon, [evil ghost, or Galla-demon, may you not approach] the man!"
pg.79 "The evil Udug [and evil Ala-demons stood opposite a man. and the evil ghost [is set against a man.]"
Ghost: pg. 37 "Whether you are the ghost coming from the Netherworld, whether you are the wraith that has no resting place."
pg.75 "With semes-flour, {which is unpleasant for a ghost]" {quoted above}
pg.81 Speaking to evil Udug, evil Ala-demon, Evil ghost and evil Galla-demon: "Indeed, your leather bag is taken (away), and your food offering is taken away. Your place is not in the East, your station is not in the West, but your food is the food of ghosts, and your drink is the drink of wraiths."
So that is a survey of the instance of gidim in what is probably a small sampling of the O.B incantation texts available. For the most part, I would say they are considerably vague beyond specifying that a ghost might "seize" a man. What the fact that the gidim seems to act in concert with the galla may say for the nature of that seizure would be an interesting question to pursue, but for now I would say that the gidim may cause any number of the above listed symptoms.. one interpretation of the word gidim [from the Holloran lexicon] is that the word gidim breaks down to "gig, 'to be sick', + dìm, 'sickness demon'" dim perhaps also being a part of dimme [Lamastu] or dim-me-lagab [Ahhazu], other members of the seven as they sometimes appear.
General interest notes: Finally there is another observation id noticed on the subject, pertaining to the way the gidim is formed after death. From Katz 2003 pg.197 is an excellent description of death in Sumerian belief - she also at the same time touches on the question of 'the living soul in Sumer' which had been pondered at tod, and at the same time introduces a concept I hadn't been aware of: pg.197 "In principal the idea is simple, the difference between life and death is the difference between a lively human being and his motionless corpse. Thus, the breath that stops after death makes the difference; it appears as the element that animates the body and endows it with the human faculties, speech, senses, and emotions- namely, with a soul. After death, during the performance of the funerary ritual the soul is released from the body to ensure the continuation of its existence as a spirit of the netherworld. Then the body is interred to perish.[note 3] The soul that leaves the body during the ritual to become a dead spirit is designated im [meaning] "wind." This wind image indicates that the soul was actualized in the breath. Since it was perceived as the gust of air, the soul was intrinsically alive and constituted a separate entity. The breath is unseen but can be felt, and so the soul is as tangible and concrete as the body. Thus, a human being was composed of two elements: a solid and visibly body, and the ethereal soul, which would later become the dead spirit. Since after the death the spirit is merely a transformed form of the living soul, it also retains traits of human nature, the basic human physical and emotional needs. Being an actual animated entity the spirit remains as effective as the living soul. At the same time, the ethereal invisible form of the spirit makes it the perfect cause of inexplicable inauspicious happenings. The conceptual link between form and essence is demonstrated by the incantations against evil spirits."
[note 3]- According to Atra-hasis I 215 (Lambert and Millard, 1969) the spirit etemmu is the product of the godly material in the construction of humankind. This explains the immortality of the soul and its survival in the realm of the dead. Wether this later text reflects contemporary ontological speculation or retains an older Sumerian concept is questionable. In two partly preserved myths of creation, "The Hymn of the Hoe" and "Eridu Genesis" humankind seems to have sprouted like vegetation. A third, the myth "Enki and Ninmah" is closer to the idea of Atra-Hasis in as much as humankind was fashioned from clay (see Hallo and Lawson Younger, 11997, 509-13, and 516-18 resp., with previous literature). One may argue that the animation of the clay during nine months of pregnancy in the womb of the birth goddess is the source of godly component in human beings. However, the various mythical explanations of the creation of humankind imply that there was no one accepted concept on the issue. It seems likely, therefore, that the idea of nine-months pregnancy was based one the human experience of birth with no ontological intentions, and that the concept of Atra-Hasis is really a late philosophical development that was not shared by the Sumerians. The essence of soul and spirit is studied in Abusch, 1998. In a general sense I agree with his conclusion. However, I doubt that some detailed observations about the meaning of soul reflect the common belief in the UrIII and Old Babylonian periods."
Thus Katz is the first researcher I know of to use the term Living soul in reference to Mesopotamian beliefs, though still not providing explicitly supporting texts (which we may have proved on tod, to be a futile effort). But the new concept, new to me,is the im - further instances from Katz work are:
in a note on pg 208- 32. "Noteworthy is TIM 6, 10,1-9 (SS 7), which differentiates between im and gidim. Wilcke maintains that im designates the spirit at the time of death, whereas gidim the spirit in the netherworld. (Wilcke, 1988, 254)..." pg. 202 note 10 - "...This possibly implies that the ritual for the 'messenger' was the initial funeral rite for a man who body was missing (as also implied by line 48, which designates the spirit im rather than gidim)." [As in his body is missing and the spirit is designated im because it had not descended to the netherworld as a result]. pg 81- " However, if it marks the place where his body was cast, far away from Sumer, then kur is either "mountainous area" or even "foreign land." This possibility is suggested by the designation of the spirit by im rather then gidim."
So Katz makes a case for the existence of the concept of Living soul in Sumer, and further that after the breath left the body, it would exist first as im, then if it descended to the netherworld -as funeral rituals would have- it was called gidim. Still to follow: sources which may contribute to the gidim as possibly vampiric entity.
[p.s. Though this is not related to the gidim, Id found another reference that indicates the netherworld deities as flesh eaters/blood drinkers, pg 169 of the same book points out a line from "The Instructions of Suruppak" which reads "On an unknown road at the edge of kur, the gods of the kur are man-eaters." Ill add it to the list.]
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 26, 2007 23:37:56 GMT -5
While the above survey didnt produce too much by way of vampiric tendency for the gidim, I suspect some such instances may be found in later texts. Then again my looks at CAD for etemmu didnt bear this out.. On reflection there is the following lines:
- From Descent of Ishtar, [Ishtar threatens] "I shall raise up the dead, and they shall eat the living. The dead shall outnumber the living!" And mirror in - Nergal and Ereshkigal [Ereshkigal threatens]" "I shall raise up the dead, and they shall eat the living. The dead shall outnumber the living!"
Though this is not epxlicitly blood drinking and doesnt fit the criteria as a result, ill add the lines to the running list nonetheless. Soon to come: Lilitu
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 29, 2007 16:43:54 GMT -5
***Posted by Cynsanity at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6389The enigmatic figure of Lilith is sure to provoke different associations with nearly everyone - occultists, vampires, roleplayers, historians etc. some claim her to be the mother of all demons, some to be the mother of all vampires. some claim other things. in this posting, I will try to refrain from occult references in order to keep this a purely historical and philological article, whoever is interested in a discussion, please let your voice(s) be heard. where to start? it is well-known that in ancient Sumer, the goddess Inana(k) was worshipped as the queen of the sky (her name comes from the Sumerian construction *nin-an-ak, which litteraly means 'lady of the sky'); she was associated with the planet venus, and her dual nature as the morning- resp. evening star was well known at that time. during the reign of the dynasty of Akkad, Inana(k) was fused with the semitic goddess Ishtar in such a profound way that it is nigh to impossible to distinguish between those two goddesses. Ishtar, as a semitic goddess, was not only the lady of love and sex and fertility (as Inana(k) had been), but also the lady of war and death. an example from a hymn to Inana/Ishtar: At your battle-cry, my lady, the foreign lands bow low. When humanity comes before you in awed silence at the terrifying radiance and tempest, you grasp the most terrible of all the divine powers. Because of you, the threshold of tears is opened, and people walk along the path of the house of great lamentations. In the van of battle, all is struck down before you. With your strength, my lady, teeth can crush flint. You charge forward like a charging storm. You roar with the roaring storm, you continually thunder with Iškur. You spread exhaustion with the stormwinds, while your own feet remain tireless. With the lamenting balag drum a lament is struck up. My lady, the great Anuna gods fly from you to the ruin mounds like scudding bats. They dare not stand before your terrible gaze. They dare not confront your terrible countenance. Who can cool your raging heart? Your malevolent anger is too great to cool. Lady, can your mood be soothed? Lady, can your heart be gladdened? Eldest daughter of Suen, your rage cannot be cooled! (Inana B, lines 20 - 41) here, the war-like character of the 'compound-goddess' can clearly be seen. please bear in mind the parts I underlined, this will be important later. in one of the earliest dated versions of the epic of Gilgamesh (the correct reading of his name seems to be Bilgames [Selz in passim ], a female entity is mentioned who dwells in the sacred tree of Inana/Ishtar. she is described as having the wings and the claws of an owl, but otherwise looking like an alluring woman. the name given to her in this (Sumerian) composition is 'kisikillila' (*ki.sikil-líl-ak), which means 'maiden/young woman/pure woman (evtl. virgin?) of the wind'. in later versions of this small myth, written in Akkadian, we come across the 'Ardat-Lilî'. according to my CDA (see literature below), page 182: lîlu, f. lilîtu, and ardat lilî - storm demons. here, the 'LÍL' of Sumerian, which can mean wind, storm, breath, odem etc. is still recognised for what it is, the logogram for said Sumerian word. we can identify the kisikillila as belonging to Inana/Ishtar through the Sumerian symbolism. in the tree she occupied, there also dwelt a snake (in Sumerian, Inana(k) is written with the logogram DINGIR.MÙSH, DINGIR being the 'divine determinative', MÙSH meaning 'snake' - think kundalini...) and an Imdugud/Anzu, a being which originally was part of the storm-god's (Ishkur) entourage, but later became a general apotropaic being, well fitted to the semitic perception of Inana/Ishtar. nonetheless, the kisikillila was seen as merely a lesser, more destructive aspect of Inana/Ishtar, not as a full-blown aspect. in latter times (around 1800 BCE) it became demonised. However, as Sumerian died out as a spoken language roughly 2000 BCE, a lot of the sumerograms weren't recognised for what they originally were, as Akkadian (resp. its two main dialects, Babylonian and Assyrian) replaced Sumerian as a spoken language. as it was with Latin in the middle ages, hardly anyone could really speak it, but nearly all of the cultic and religious hymns/songs/texts were written in (often poor) Sumerian. in the Syrian area, the goddess we today know as Ishtar was worshipped under the name of 'Ashtart(e)', her male counterpart being 'Ashtar' (the -t- infix refers, in old semitic languages, to the female form of the noun). those people who later came to invent monotheism as we know it, were acquainted with the Gods and Goddesses of Babylonia/Assyria (Diaspora, for example). also, earlier, these people received a steady influx of west-semitic groups, such as the Amorites, who brought their beliefs with them. as such, the 'Iraelites' were subject to a broad religious influence. when the philosophy of Zoroatrism (roughly 700 or 600 BCE, no one is really sure about that) reached the Levante and the Libanon/Antelibanon, the people who would later embrace a strict monotheism were exposed to a dualistic view of the world. everything that was needed its counterpart. ever wondered why the prophets in the old testament go into nearly hysterical fits when raging against the erecting of 'stones' on high places, or against 'idols'? originally, the monotheistic god JHVH was imagined as having a female companion - Asherah (read the stories about Solomon). although appearing as a male name at first when only versed in really old semitic languages, the language of ancient Hebrew developed without much contact to the outside. they soon lost the -t- - female infix. thus, Asherah is the female form, and she became the consort of JHVH, the 'god of the gods' (old semitic il ilu, which can easily be rendered into Ellil, which was the semitic version of Enlil - the hypothesis goes that Ellil was incorporated into the Sumerian pantheon when the first semitic settlers came to Sumer, and the Sumerians changed the name so that they could make any sense of it - but that's just a sidenote, and has yet to be proven). so, in the beginning, that what we see as the first monotheism in the world wasn't a monotheism at all, but could be called 'monojahwism' - the worship of JHVH alone (including, in the beginning, his female counterpart Asherah), but still recognising that other gods exist. with the 'deutoronomic revolution', a part of the priesthood scholars of the ancient near east and ancient biblical studies like to call the 'JHVH alone!'-movement, gained power (probably around the time of Joshija). complete with a patriarchal system of life, the female part of their god was demonised. 'Asherah's and 'Lilith's were the first to fall to that regime. both are etymologically connected to Ishtar (and her appearance as the Lilitu, the original kisikillila), and were both identified with the worst aspects of female existance. here I want to note that Inana/Ishtar NEVER was a mother goddess. she embodied the female force per se, but not the life-giving mother aspect. although she had sex with nearly every male major god of the pantheon, she never gave birth, and was always considered to be ritually pure (that is, a ki.sikil). W. Fauth demonstrated convincingly in his article from 1986 that it is highly probable that a secondary semantic transfer from Sumerian 'LÍL' (wind, storm, breath, air) to Semitic *ljl 'night' took place during the final demonisation of the Lilitu and her male counterpart, the Lili(m/n) . in ancient mandaean scripts, the Lilitu is connected to the ruach (female!), which would later be translated as the 'holy ghost' in the bible. her later, demonised aspect resulted from a strongly negatively coloured re-connection to Ishtar/Asherah; in this context, she's explicitely named as the 'Ishtar of Hierodules'; she became the epitome of destructive female sexuality, feeding on male partners till they, eventually, faded away (metaphorically speaking) because of her attention. Lilitû, since that time, always had a strong connection to the sphere of sexuality and death. in various pre-rabbinic texts, they are connected to the old Sumerian God of the netherworld, Nergal . but already in the neo-babylonian Maqlû-text (which is, rather poorly and most of the time falsely printed in the so-called Simon-'Necronomicon'), the aggressive sexuality of these beings is mentioned. they can, according to the various texts W. Fauth collected, invade a human beings dreams in order to drain him/her (there are female and male Lilitu/Lilim), haunt their dreams (sleeping dreams and waking dreams). it was also believed that a Lilitu or Lilim/n was able to enter the body of a young human (read: teenager; Lilitû only being able to 'enter' females, and vice versa) and 'possess' her/him. symptoms of such a possession: cramps, disorientation, shivering, and the urge to drink human blood or feed on human flesh (the latter case is attested in only two texts Fauth has researched, the majority - 74 - mention only the urge to drink blood). of course, if an exorcism didn't work, the poor person was stoned to death and burnt afterwards. *** main literature: Innsbrucker Sumerisches Lexikon, 1990 A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected printing, 2000 (CDA) Lilits und Astarten in aramaeischen, mandaeischen und syrischen Zaubertexten, 1986 (W. Fauth), in Welt des Orients XVII Untersuchungen zur Goetterwelt des altsumerischen Stadtstaates von Lagash, 1995 (G.J. Selz) (UGASL)
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Post by madness on Apr 30, 2007 6:12:49 GMT -5
I'm glad the information on Lilitu has been posted. Here are some tidbits I have found. First I will refer to Raphael Patai's The Hebrew Goddess. Although this is from a Hebrew perspective I think it is helpful nonetheless in understanding the nature of Lilith. In his conclusion to Lilith (and after having stated that the career of Lilith in ancient Sumer and in Kabbalistic Judaism is "very similar"), he discusses the many similarities between Lilith and the Matronit (Shekhina), showing that they really are simply two different masks of the same goddess. He then goes to say, p. 253 "We thus recognize the identity of opposites in Lilith and the Matronit or, as one may better put it, the ambivalence of religio-sexual experience. The same impulse or experience can, in the case of one man, be good, and in the case of the other, evil." And, pp. 253 - 254 "God is one, but the Goddess, who is part of him, is two: the Matronit and Lilith. She appears like the revolving flame of the Cherubim's sword in the ancient myth: once she shows her Matronit face, once her Lilith visage. The flame revolves so fast that it is impossible to hold in one's eye a separate picture of either." And in his chapter on the Sabbath, he points out that whenever the goddess shows up, so does Lilith, p. 267 "It is a peculiar, yet again almost inevitable, coincidence that the same night on which the pious prepare to receive Queen Sabbath, and on which God Himself proceeds to unite with her, should also be the time when Lilith roams and seduces men. It is up to man ... to make his choice between the holy bride, the Sabbath, and the unholy one, Lilith." Now in Pirjo Lapinkivi's The Sumerian Sacred Marriage (SAAS 15) She discusses the Burney Relief (this relief: www.lilitu.com/lilith/burney.gif), pp. 141 - 142 "In other words, the female of the Burney Relief is demonic in the lower part of her body whereas the upper part is divine. This two-layered representation fits well with Ištar, whose upper, divine part of the body is used as a reference to life, whereas the demonic, lower part of the body is used as a reference to death, both of which are found among her aspects. As a goddess of love, she is life, as a goddess of war, she is death. The wings, on one hand, refer to Kilili, an owl ( kililu/kilili), but on the other hand, they may imply that the figure is a representation of a soul, or more precisely, a winged soul, as described in the Etana Epic. The fact that Inanna/Ištar can stand for a soul, as in the Descent, can explain why the female of the Burney Relief is depicted with wings. The zaqiqu/ziqiqu “soul, ghost” was also depicted as a bird-like emanation. As a matter of fact, in the more easily interpreted iconography of Inanna/Ištar, she is often depicted with wings. Equally, the demonic and divine features find their explanation in the "soul" aspect of the goddess: the soul in both its sinful and purified states. Note also that Lilitu's position in the tree in the story of Gilgameš and the Huluppu-Tree is in the middle in the trunk, which connects her with Inanna/Ištar, the mediator between gods and men, and with her position in the Mesopotamian Tree of Life."
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on May 2, 2007 11:38:53 GMT -5
-Cyn: I find your effort to explain the symbolism, and the connection between the Poets choice of the three entities which infest the Halub tree, very interesting. The choice of these three is something I find curious every time I encounter it. But while one curiosity may be addressed by this explanation another results: that is, if symbolism is employed, why would the poet choose beings associated with Inana to obstruct Inana with? If not for some preference for ‘thematic rhyme’ over logical opposition. The interpretation of that particular myth as a whole is a task in itself (I do anticipate a looming discussion on Sacred Trees, so tackling the significance of the Halub tree [an important item in the myth] may be pending..) As for the general association made here between Inana and Lilitu, that would do much as far as substantiating an early charactor. This article has a more basic focus, more of an outline, but once this is established Id hope to explore such conceptual simularities. -The question of the Lilitu is a multi-faceted problem for me. This is one where I believe a sophisticated understanding must be earned, I am determined that it will be. Of course, it is not hard to find articles on the Lilitu..yet I still don’t feel I have a grasp of the early roots of this character, be they vampiric or no. For this to impact the vampire thread then, Id first want to focus on the Sumerian sources, establish what grasp is possible, then move to other more commonly presented aspects of the Lilitu in a follow up post. R.PATAI/REALLEXIKON -Daniel: Excellent referencing with R. Patai, I think he’s a good place to start as well. By chance I was also reviewing similar work of his, Specifically his article ‘Lilith’ from “[Journal of American Folklore 1964]”, which is contained within the book your referring to I believe. I’ll respond in detail to those quotes once we get there chronologically speaking (and we will ;]). For now another Patai quote outlines the Akkadian Lilitu, and one Sumerian instance: “The earliest mention of a she-demon whose name is similar to that of Lilith is found in a Sumerian King list which dates from around 2400 B.C. [/li][li] It states that the father of the great hero Gilgamesh was a Lillu-demon. The Lillu was one of four demons belonging to a vampire-succubae class. The other three were Lilitu (Lilith), a she-demon; Ardat Lili (or Lilith’s handmaiden) , who visited men by night and bore them ghostly children, Irdat Lili, who must have been her male counterpart and used to visit women and beget children by them. Originally these were storm demons, but, because of a mistaken etymology, they came to be regarded as night demons.[2]” [/li][li] (This was the first time Id taken stock of this factoid, a quick check at etcsl shows the line in question to read: [t.2.1.1] “Gilgameš, whose father was a phantom (?), the lord of Kulaba, ruled for 126 years” “112.dgilgamec3 113. ab-ba-ni lil2-la2 114.en kul-ab-ba-ke4 115.mu 126 i3-ak” ab-ba-ni = father. So His fathers name seems then to be written simply “lil2-la2”.) In an effort to better understand the Sumerian forerunners of these ‘4’, or even if each had a Sumerian forerunner, I began googleing “lil2-la2” and related Sumerian names. Eventually[3] I found the Reallexikon der Assyriologie entry by Eric Ebeling. The entry was obviously a trove of information – and I wasn’t about to let the confusion of tongues screw me this time. Besides I have an online German to English dictionary (how hard could it be?) -The beginning of the Reallexikon article on “Lilu, Lilitu, Ardat-lili” ., Familie von damonischen Geistern, oft – aufgrund nicht ganz sicherer Etymologie – als Sturmdamonen aufgefa-t. Sumerische Entsprechungen: lilu = lu.lil,la, lil,la.en.na; lilitu = munus.lil.la, ki-sikil-lil-la(en.na); ardat lili = ki.sikil.lil.la(.en.na), ki-sikil.UD.DA.kar.ra (alle sum.Namen mit vielen Varianten). Die drei warden haufig zusammen genannt in den Damonenreihen der jungeren sum. Beschworun )z.T.al Untergruppe, oder auch neben den, Bosen Sieben’). Making use of my Ger.-Eng. Dictionary (and the strategically placed equals signs) I managed to translate: Lilu = lu.lil.la, lil.la.en.na Lilitu = munus.lil.la, ki.sikil.lil.la(.en.na) Ardat lili = ki.sikil.lil.la(en.na), ki.sikil.UD.DA.kar.ra -G. CUNNINGHAM 1997 p.101/ GELLER 1985 [4] Thus my attempt to detail the Sumerian precursors had a dubious, yet informative start. Above on this thread, in the survey of the Gidim, I quoted a line from ‘Forerunners to Udug-hul’ , page 45, which Cunningham states being an example of ‘the seven.’ In the same paragraph though he says: “However, the identities of the seven are not consistent. Thus, for example, Text 75 substitutes for Ahhazu ‘the lil (‘wind’), the occupant of the steppe’ (‘lil-la-tus-edin-na’) a daimon who is related to Ardat Lili )’young woman of the wind’)”[ii] Cunninghams corresponding footnotes read: "Text 75 18 (line number according to the composite edition of Geller 1985) " [ii] "This daimon’s Sumerian equivalent – ki-sikil-lil-la – is referred to in Text 85 223 line number according to composite edition of Geller 1985). A reference to a third member in this trio of related daimons, munus-lil-la (‘female wind’), is probably to be restored at the beginning of the same line; her Akkadian equivalent, Lilitu, is mentioned in partly bilingual Text 313 1 where she is associated with witchcraft but here the corresponding Sumerian reference is to ‘the evil one’ (‘[hul]-gal’). For the lil see Jacobsen 1989 [271ff; for the three daimons Farber 1987-90 and Scurlock 1991 p151ff.”
The relevant lines from Geller 1985 Text 75 18 I believe read: “[the Evil Udug] of the steppe [killed] the victim, as the [evil] Ala covered him like a garment. While the [evil ghost] and evil Galla seized his body, And while the [Dimme] and Dima infected his body, The Lil demons, inhospitable winds of the steppe, swept along, Approached the distraught man’s side, And set the grievous asag-disease in his body.”
Here “lil-la-tus-edin-na’ is rendered (if I interpret correctly) “the lil demons, inhospitable winds of the steppe” , the same Cunningham (above) translates “‘the lil (‘wind’), the occupant of the steppe”. The full line is: “lil-la tus-edin-na i-bu-bu-de-es”.
The relevant lines from Geller 1985 [ii] Text 85 223 read: "When I would pass along the street, in my going in the thoroughfare, The evil Udug, evil Ala demon, evil ghost, Evil Galla, evil Bailiff, Dimme, Dimme-Lagab, Lil, (female Lil), and maiden Lil demons, the evil Namtar, the bitter asag-disease – his serious illness being virulent- may they not approach me.”
Here “Lil” is a rendering of lu-lil-la, and “(female Lil)” of what Cunningham indicates should probably read “munus-lil-la” and “maiden Lil demons” a rendering of ki.sikil.UD.DA.kar.ra. Hence according what Ive pilfered from the Reallexikon this incantation contains the three Sumerian precursors of Lilu, Lilitu, and Ardat Lili.
-Given that the Burney relief is an oft debated thing, and the tide of interpretation seems to be swinging toward Inana or Ereskigal, Ill leave off that for now. However there is an additional instance of ki-sikil-lil-la availible that Cyn mentioned above, that is the one from Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld: [t.1.8.1.4]
Lines 44/45:“In its trunk, the phantom maid built herself a dwelling, the maid who laughs with a joyful heart.
Lines 44/45: “cab-bi-a ki-sikil lil2-la2-ke4 e2 im-ma-ni-ib-du3 ki-sikil zu2 li9-li9 cag4 hul2-hul2”
At first Id thought based on Cunninghams footnote that this must be referring to the Ardat Lili forerunner. After seeing the Reallexikon list, I realize this may refer also to the Lilitu forerunner, as they were evidently both known by ki-sikil-lil2-la2 – I don’t yet see how this is explicit either way. [5]
Ill stop here in order that my post doesn’t seem too long, and to allow for any objections up until this point. Still to come shortly though: 1 or 2 other references, late references, to ki-sikil-lil-la, my continuing un-certainty on the way to interpret that name, but also an attempt to combat that uncertainty (“Unbestrutten is the origin of the Names of sum. Lil, less surely against it its exact meaning (probably about, wind breath, spirit"), CAD and perhaps further required readings.. Cheers.
[2] Bruno Meissner, Babylonia un Assyrian (Heidelberg, 1925), II. 201 [3] first went to psd.museum.upenn.edu/PSD/html/ascii/pageview/p0669.htm There I gathered that some probably interesting work had been done on ki-sikil-lil2-la2 at AHw 553, which turned out to be by W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (Wiesbaden 1959-81) most likely in german. Googleing “AHw 553” led to the Reallexikon der Assyriologie, which can be previewed via books.google for the relevant article. books.google.com/books?id=UqbsSRgBRloC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=%22ki+sikil+ud+da+kar+ra%22&source=web&ots=5fkSlJ7Dyi&sig=OXD8CG0PckCUecdovJ31TC_x-x0
[4] The instance of ki-sikil-lil-la in the Udug-hul incantations has actually been mentioned in the public domain before, see particularly bottem (passingover) forum.darkness.com/lofiversion/index.php/t28063.html
[5] As appalling as it is, no – as disgusting as it is, my ‘Babel Fish’ translation of the Reallexikon entry for Ardat Lili, did provide me with enough of a sense of what was being said, to see that Erich Ebeling seems to believe it’s the Ardat Lili forerunner in that myth: “(W)ardat lili(m) ist offenbar (als ki.sikil.lil.la) gelegentlich in der sum. Literatur bezeugt. In Gilgames, Enkidu und die Unterwelt” bewohnt sie den Stamm des huluppu-Baumes und wird bei seiner Fallung in die Steppe vertrieben. Die mythologische Bedeutung dieser Textstelle ist noch nicht restlos jekiart; s.a lilu” Babel Fish would have us believe this translates to: “(W)ardat lili(m) is obviously (as ki.sikil.lil.la) occasional in sum. Literature testifies. In Gilgames, Enkidu and the underworld "it inhabits the trunk of the huluppu tree and when its falling in quilts driven out. The mythologische meaning of this passage in the text is not yet completely jekiart; S.A. lilu” (A disgrace to automatic german to english web translations everywhere, but a small interpretational tip anyway).
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on May 6, 2007 15:23:41 GMT -5
Continuing on then: Two Later Examples Of The Early Writing Of Lilu/Lilitu/Ardat Lili: (note these use's come some 1000 years later then the O.B. instances.) -F.A.M Wiggerman’s ‘Mesopotamian Protective Spirits’ contains text and translation of 'sep lemutti in a bit ameli parasu' (“to block the entry of the enemy in someone’s house”) a late ritual series. This particular ritual has an introduction to explain its purpose, that is to block the enemy, in the words of the text: “[Wh]ether it be an evil spirit, or an evil alu, or an evil ghost, [or] an evil constable, or an evil god, or an evil deputy, [or] Lamastu, or Labasu, or the robber[/li][li] [or] Lilu, or Lilitu, or Handmaid-of-Lilu[**] [/li][li] line reads “[lu] la-mas-tum lu la-ba-su lu ah-ha-zu [**] line reads [lu] LIL.LA lu MUNUS.LIL.LA lu KI.SIKIL.UD.DA.KAR.RA -From “Fragments of magic, medicine, & mythology from Nimrud” By M.J. Geller (Bulleton of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2000) Here Geller discusses a few recently published tablets excavated from the Nabu temple, so I would think this dates them approx to 883-859 B.C if not later. Geller indicates that some of the selected texts are “particularly relevant to the fields of cuneiform magic and medicine.” This particular text is interesting here for the presence of use of the name Ki-sikil-lil-la Translation: “[The maiden (is one) who does not rejoice with] the (other) maidens, [the maiden (is one) who has no one and who […] a spouse, [the maiden (is one)] who has no spouse nor bore a son, [the maiden (is one)] who has no spouse nor raised no son, [the maiden-lilith (is one)] who trembled in the house like the wind. [The maiden is one whose anxiety] carried her off to the netherworld. [The young man without a personal god] has confronted her. [They (the demons) placed [their hands on his hand], they put [their feet on his feet], they changed [their neck] with his neck, and (the demon) transformed [himself (into him)]. He said to her, [“I am the son of a prince”]…” Transliteration: (Subject to some error, as I wrote it out by hand and re-typed it at home). “[Ki-sikil ki Ki-sikil] e-n[e] n u[n-hul-la] [MIN sa it-ti ar-d]a-te su ti […] [ki-sikil ezen u[ru-na-se igi nu-mu-[un-ni-in-du8] [MIN sa ina i-sin-n]i URU-sa la in-[nam-ru]
[ki-sikil dumu nu-u]n-tuka-a dam mu-un […] [MIN sa ma-r]a la i-su-u mu-ta x […] [ki-sikil da]m nu-tuku-a dumu nu-u-tu-ud-da [MIN sa mu-ta] la i-su-u ma-ra la ul-d
[ki-sikil da]m nu-tuku-a dumu nu-e-a [MIN sa mu-t]ala i-su-u ma-rala u-re-ba-u [ki-sikil-lil-la i]m-gim ab-ba lu e-tab-ra-e-en ar-da-at li-li-I sa] ki-ma sa a-a-ri ina ap-ti E na-a-sa-at
[ki-sikil sa-gig-g]a ki-se mu-un-tum-tum-mu [MIN sa mu-ru-us lib-bi-sa ana]er-se-ti ub-lu-si [gurus dingir nu-tuku-ra gaba] mi-in-ra-ra [la be-el ili]u-man-hi-ir-si-ma [su-ne-ne-a su-t]a ba-an-gar-re-es [qa-ti-su-nu ana qa-ti-su i]l-ta-ka-an [gin-na-na-a giri-ni b]a-an-gar-re-es [gu-ne-ne-a gu-ta(bal): GU-s]u KI GU-su us-te-en-nu [ni-te-a-ni (su-bal-ak ra-ma-an-su u]s-te-pel-ma [dumu nun-na ga-e-me-en ba-ni-i]n-du11 Ima-ru ru-be-e a-na-ku iq]-bi-su”
An interesting Parallel is in an Incantation published by B. Foster (1995). The book provides no dating/provenance, transliteration or museum number which would help to place the text, or know how the Lilitu is refered to in the text..just the English translation. Nonetheless the text , at least in part, is relevant here:
“Life Passed Them By”
(Foster:) “Mesopotamian demonology recognized a wraith in the form of a young man or women (Ardat Lili) that had never known a full or normal life. The excerpts translated below show the nature of this demon and sometimes fervid descriptions lavished on it by the scribes.”
(English Translation:) sits stock still in the street, [all al]one, A young man who groans bitterly in the grip of his fate, A young man who, on account of his destiny, is aghast, A young man whose mother, sobbing, bore him in the street, A young man whose body is seared by woe, A young man whose (personal) god bound him out of hostility, A young man whose (personal) goddess forsook him, A young man who took no wife, raised no child, A young man who felt no pleasure in his wife’ loins, A young man who did not strip the garment From his wife’s loins, A young man expelled from his wedding… They (the demons) confront the man who has no god, They s[et] their hands on his hand, [They set their] feet on his feet, [They set their] neck with his neck, They traded his self [for theirs]. “I am the son of a prince,” he said to her, “I will fill you lap with silver and gold, “You be the wife, “I will be your husband.” He said to her, He made himself alluring to her as the fruit in the orchard. Ardat-Lili wafts through a man’s window: The girl who had no (natural) destiny(?), The girl who was never impregnated like a woman, The girl who never lost her virginity like a woman, The girl who felt no pleasure in her husband’s loins, The girl who never removed her garment At her husbands loins, The girl whose garment pin no fine young man released, The girl who had no milk in her breasts, But only bitter fluid came out, The girl who felt no pleasure in her husband’s loins, Whose desire was never fulfilled, The girl without a bedroom, Who did not call for her mother. Who made her cheek ugly through unhappiness, Who did not enjoy herself with (other) girls, Who never appeared at her city’s festival, Who never wanted anything, Who was taken away from her husband in the bedchamber, Who had no husband, bore no son, Who had no husband, produced no son, Whose husband was taken away, whose son was taken away, Who was expelled from her wedding, Ardat-lili, who was expelled from the window like air, Ardat-lili, whose spirit was not in her breathing (?), Ardat-lili, whose misery took her to the grave. So long as you have not left (this) house, So long as you have not left (this) city, You shall eat no food, you shall drink no water, You shall taste no sea water, fresh water, brackish water, Tigris water, Euphrates water, well water, canal water! If you would fly towards heaven, you shall have no wings, If you would stay on earth, you shall have no place to sit!”
Foster’s text seems to suggest a few things about the Nabu Temple text. There may be an inner contradiction in the latter – but that “The young man without a personal god] has confronted her” seems to run exactly the opposite as in the ‘Foster text’ “They (the demons) confront the man who has no god”. But what happens afterward is exactly the same (that is the inhabiting of the body) It seems at least in the Foster version, and possibly in the Nabu temple version, that the ‘victim’ of Ardat Lili, compares significantly with her in terms of social orbit. They both were “expelled” from their wedding..They both seem to lack ordinary social relations and aspirations eg. Sexual intimacy. Speculations: In fact certain lines almost seem to suggest that the victim invited Ardat-lili to occupy his body, as in the ““I am the son of a prince,”” sequence, (most likely present in the Nabu temple text as well though cut off). He “made himself alluring to her”, and he says to her "I will be your husband" this willingness seems to suggest that a) Ardat Lili has chosen one whose desperation would blind him to her danger or b) The victims social standing and distance from his personal god have made him a target for Ardat Lili, who after inhabiting the man effects his desire's (thus the proposal). c) (If the victim actualy offers marriage after the absorbtion, as it appears in the translation) Given that there social make-up is almost mirrored, and particularly the remark that both were "expelled" from their wedding, perhaps a mutual need should be interpreted.
I wondered briefly if the line “Ardat-Lili wafts through a man’s window” might be metaphorically alluding to occupation itself rather then a literal window. The man’s window being whatever entry point she utilize’s..The man is described as 'on the street' at the top of the text, yet that she is expelled 'from this house' toward the end seems to cut that possiblity short. Since this is an exorcism, I believe the bottom 10 lines in any case do pertain to her removal from both the body, from the house, and finally back to the Netherworld. The line ‘expelled from the window like air’ does suggest her ethereal nature. Whether or not that nature is best understood as wind or spirit is a fascinating question (to me).
To post shortly: pondering the conceptual understandings of the Lil demons.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on May 13, 2007 0:43:11 GMT -5
What are the Lil beings?
The conceptual understanding of the early Lil demons, that is their basic form and substance, and ultimately their nature, will likely require additional tactics over and above simple presentations of relevant textual references, like my above two posts. The question becomes more funditmental not 'where is this entity first attested?' or 'what does it do?' but 'what is this entity?'. So to discuss the interpretational offering re-posted above, that is what Cyn had said in terms of Ki-sikil-lil-la as a wind demon and in association with Inana. [note *1] If I read that post correctly, three key observations were made in support of the possible conceptual relation between Ki-sikil-lil-la and Inana, one of those being the occupants of the Huluppu tree. As for a second, that is the recognition of Inana as a ritually pure entity, (“ki-sikil [d]inana” as for example from t.1.1.3) there is abundant attestation of ‘Maiden Inana”. I have some indirect indicators that in regards to the use of the term ki-sikil, Leick distinguished between physical virginity, and the state of being free of a man’s control which may apply more directly to Inana, while either meaning might apply to ki-sikil-lil-la (esp. as Ardat lili). This cant be explored further here as I don’t have the book in front of me. Moving on then to Inana’s storm aspect, or her ability to attack with winds, this seems attestable enough as well:
-(Re-posted above)– t.4.07.2 The exaltation of Inana (Inana B) “You spread exhaustion with the stormwinds [im-ḫul-im-ḫul-da], while your own feet remain tireless. With the lamenting balag drum a lament is struck up.”
t.1.3.2 Inana and Ebih “She stirred up an evil raging wind with potsherds.” “im-ḫul zig3-ga šika im-bar-re
t.1.7.7 The Sumanda grass “she hurled fierce winds at the head of the šumunda grass (saying): "Šumunda grass, your name …….” 62. saĝ-du u2šumunda-ke4 tum9[u18-lu-tum9u18]-/lu\ bi2-in-šub
(mar-uru5 while sometimes rendered as flood or floodstorm, seems here to be rendered wind) t.4.07.6 - A balbale (?) to Inana (Inana F) “He [Enlil] gave me battles and he gave me fighting. He gave me the stormwind [mar-uru5] and he gave me the dust cloud.”
Lil2: is it Wind Or Ghost? So I would recognize those observations on the aspects of Inana, of course in order to establish a true parallel, and for the comparison to hold, corresponding features of ki-sikil-lil-la would also need to be confirmed. Ever since my horrible translation of the Reallexikon entry Ive increasingly recognized an almost tangible ambiguity in the interpretation of lil2 in this particular use, that is whether it pertains to ‘wind’ or ‘ghost’ [*2]. In looking just at the name/entity of Ki-sikil-lil-la, I want to know how some sources suggest wind and others ghost, whether this is some linguistic determination or based on the context of ki-sikil-lil-la’s actions etc. Here are some selected sources which interpret wind:
As Wind: -Cunningham p.101 (the relevant piece I quoted above he translates Ardat lili as “young woman of the wind”) - R. Patai quoted above who says “originally these were storm demons”. (his notes indicate he drew on Bruno Meissner 1928 for this) - I would suspect one or more of your sources Cyn, or all, indicate wind if they are explicit on that. - At least one of the incantations so far examined (above) is very suggestive of wind stating “The Lil demons, inhospitable winds of the steppe, swept along,”
Unclear: Somewhere in the middle there is Ebelings Reallexikon entry, which I think is advocating the Lilu as a family of Geistern (ghost/spirit) but for obvious reasons I wont use this line here for either perspective: -. “Familie von damonischen Geistern, oft – aufgrund nicht ganz sicherer Etymologie – als Sturmdamonen aufgefa-t.” - ePSD divides “lil2” into two categories ‘Wind, Breeze’ and ‘Ghost’. Under Wind, Breeze they put a link “see ki-sikil lil” indicating which her nature should be understood in this way. Yet the entry as a whole seems to equate lil2 with zaqiqu, “lil2 "wind, breeze; ghost" Akk. Zīqīqu” which they have listed under “ghost” (http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html)
As Ghost: - paper13.pdf (Couto-Ferreira) reads “other demons as lu.lil.la, ki-sikil-lil-la (the Lilu category) will be analyzed in another section, due to their nature, that is, ghosts of people that died before their plans for a lifetime succeeded.” - at Etcsl, they translate phantom maid in G&Eand the N.W. and they translate phantom for lil2.la2 [Gilgamesh’s father]. Possibly related is their rendering of “lil2-gin7” as phantom, though Im not aware of the function of gin7. (Inana’s descent). - CAD/Lapinkivi - Daniel (Madness) has supplied me with a very timely Lapinkivi note, thank you, she states “According to the CAD (Z, s. zaqiqu/ziqiqu, 58), the meaning of the Sumerian word lil points to a “phantom,” “ghost,” “haunting spirit” (as in lu-lil-la, ki-sikil-lil-la, lilu, lilitu) rather than to a “wind” which nevertheless is the usual translation.”
The CAD entry for Zaqiqu:
This made me pay closer attention to some CAD photocopies Id made for earlier topics – Of course we have looked at Zaqiqu in another context [*3] additional indication of his importance here, is the fact that at the bottom the CAD entry for Lilu/Lilitu is the hint “for the family of l[ilu] demons, see zaqiqu discussion section.” Because lil2 reportedly = zaqiqu, I suppose it makes sense that this where the nature of ki-sikil-lil-la is touched on in an Assyrian dictionary. The discussion reads:
“The word zaqiqu does not refer to a stormwind or even a wind. The only passages in which sisig and lil correspond to mehu [violent storm] and saru [wind] are those cited in the lex. Section, and these correspondences are not paralleled in bil. Texts. The only instance in which zaqiqu denotes a metrological phenomenon (mng. La-2’) adds significantly the explanation iltanu; “north wind,” i.e, the only wind that was considered charged with supernatural quality (see istanu and manitu). The mng. Of Sum. Lil points likewise to “phantom,” “ghost,” “haunting spirt” (as in lu.lil.la, ki.sikil.lil.la,, see lilu, lilitu) rather than to “wind.” Note also that zaqiqu is to be considered an irregular diminutive (possibly to be posited as zaqiqu, zaqiqu). It is used as a designation of the dream god and also to denote some kind of divine communication in answer to prayers (see mng. 1a-2’). While in other contexts the translation “soul” seems to fit (see mng. 4). The Akk.zaqiqu, as well as the Sum. Lil, not only denotes the ghosts, etc., that haunt a place in the desert or a ruined city, but these localities themselves, which are sometimes also called in Sum. Edin.lil.la (not “desert of the wind” Jacobsen, JNES 12 168 n.25). “ [At the bottom of the discussion is the line “Oppenheim, Dream-book 234ff.” so I believe these are his words]
Comment: Although this assessment is strongly worded, I would consider it persuasive but not final. That and I’m accessing to the 1961 version of CAD. So there is a look at some of the ambiguity of ki-sikil-lil2-la2, there are some who interpret wind, some who are neutral (I could add authors who avoid the issue by translating “demon-maid” etc but that wouldn’t serve any purpose) and those who interpret ghost. It seems both the concepts of wind and ghost were linked in a rather innate and intimate way though at present I would stop short of saying they are the same. Its worth noting that the connection of the Lilu to Inana may not necessarily be dependent on a shared wind aspect. Daniel’s above post of two weeks ago quoted Lapinkivi apparently in the midst of making the same connection but through a shared aspect of soul/ghost: “The zaqiqu/ziqiqu “soul, ghost” was also depicted as a bird-like emanation. As a matter of fact, in the more easily interpreted iconography of Inanna/Ištar, she is often depicted with wings. Equally, the demonic and divine features find their explanation in the "soul" aspect of the goddess: the soul in both its sinful and purified states. Note also that Lilitu's position in the tree in the story of Gilgameš and the Huluppu-Tree is in the middle in the trunk, which connects her with Inanna/Ištar, the mediator between gods and men, and with her position in the Mesopotamian Tree of Life.”
The question remains open..
Note 1: In loose support of this there is also the line from a late text quoted in CAD A under Ardat lili “without your (permission, Istar), the e’elu-demon, the lilu-demon and the ardat lili do not affect the sick man.” KAR 357;27 Note 2: lil2 itself being a term I think of as a high priority to understand as thoroughly as possible in all of its uses. I am considerable frustrated by my lack of access to Jacobsen’s article “The lil2 of [d]en-lil2” Behrans et al 1989, I imagine it might contain something similar to the ideas he expressed on pg.169 (1987) in regards to it meaning wind, specifically spring winds. But seeing as Black&Green state(p.76) “there is no evidence to connect the name Ellil with the lila/lilu or desert wind demon (see Lilitu).” Im proceeding here without it. Note 3: Particularly relevant from the Sisig thread is a quote from Francesca Rochberg "The word ziququ (zaqiqu) is a designation for the dream god. Its Sumerian equivolent is lil, meaning literally "wind," but having the connotation "Spirit" or "phantom." And Ross’s translation of the Cavigneux/Al-rawi who make mention in ‘note110’ of “the famous gloss of the Royal Sumerian List as-(ba)-ni-lil-la, where lil corresponds also quite close to ziqiqu.” Some of the material in this post may have implications for the zaqiqu/sisig thread..
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Post by saharda on May 29, 2007 12:34:31 GMT -5
Just thought I would post a few random thoughts as I skim through this thread.
"However I invite contradiction, but believe he was incorrect in his early statement "This is not to say that ritual use of blood is unmentioned outside of Israel. It is, in rituals pertaining to the dead or to the gods of death. ""
If you consider the tendency of the Sumerians to use what we might call sympathetic magic, you might consider this to be an extension of the law of similarity, or the law of signatures from alchemy. In this case Blood carries the property of death when spilled. You use this property to link between a death and a god of death.
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Post by madness on Jun 2, 2007 9:29:15 GMT -5
To add to the above post #15
Pirjo Lapinkivi discusses the concept of the soul in The Sumerian Sacred Marriage, State Archives of Assyria Studies 15, pp. 139-154
The soul was referred to by two words: GIDIM, eţemmu = "spirit of the dead," "ghost" AN.ZAG.GAR(.RA)/LIL, zaqīqu/ziqīqu = "soul," "ghost," "phantom"[632]
Living beings (humans and animals) also had ZI, napištu = "life, vigor, breath" which was associated with the throat or neck. As breath and coming from one’s throat, ZI was understood as moving air, i.e., wind-life. ZI (napištu) was the animating life force which could be shortened or prolonged.
At death, both eţemmu and zaqīqu/ziqīqu descended to the Netherworld, but when the body ceased to exist, so did the eţemmu, leaving only the zaqīqu.
[632] In addition to its meaning "soul," zaqīqu can mean "haunted place" (edin-lil-la) or even "god of dreams."
Lapinkivi discusses the wind aspect of zaqīqu. According to the CAD (Z, s. zaqīqu/ziqīqu, 58), the meaning of the Sumerian word lil points to a "phantom," "ghost," "haunting spirit" (as in lu-lil-la, ki-sikil-lil-la, lilû, lilītu) rather than to a "wind," which nevertheless is its usual translation. It is argued that zaqīqu does not refer to wind, since the word lil for šāru is found only in lexical lists. As the lexical lists equate wind (šāru) and ghost (zaqīqu), their association with each other cannot be unfounded.[634] Moreover, zaqīqu derives from the same root as the verb zâqu, "to blow," and the noun zīqu, "a breeze."[635]
According to J. Scurlock, zaqīqu is a sexless, wind-like emanation, probably a bird-like phantom, able to fly about through small apertures, and as such, became associated with dreaming as it was able to leave the sleeping body.[636] The wind-like appearance of the soul is also attested in the Gilgameš Epic XII 83-84, where Enkidu is able to ascend from the Netherworld through a hole in the ground: "(Gilgameš) opened a hole in the Netherworld, the utukku (ghost) of Enkidu came forth from the underworld as a zaqīqu."[637]
[634] CAD Z s.v. zaqīqu, 58: li-il LIL = šāru, silī[tu], za-q[i-qu], lilû Idu II 236ff.; [li-il] [LIL] = zi-qi-q, ša-a-ri Ea IV 7f. [635] See Oppenheim, The Interpretations of Dreams in the Ancient Near East. With a Translation of an Assyrian Dream Book. TAPS 46, Part 3. Philadelphia. 233-234 [636] Scurlock, "Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Mesopotamian Thought," in Jack M. Sasson et al. (eds.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III (New York) 1883-1893. Emphasis PL. [637] See Parpola, The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, SAACT 1. Helsinki; for translation, see George, The Epic of Gilgamesh. A New Translation. London. 194 (ll. 86-87)
Lapinkivi equates šāru[= sisig] with the divine spirit. In Assyrian personal names, the use of the šāru ("wind," "spirit") of a certain god is well attested: Šar-ilani-ila’I "The Spirit of God is my God,"[639] where šāru is the equivalent of the Hebrew use of ruah of God; (Ţab)-šar-ili/Ištar/Aššur "(Good) is the Spirit of God/Ištar/Aššur;" Ţab-šar-Mullissu/Arbail/Sin "Good is the Spirit of Mullissu/Arbela/Moon;" or Ţab-šar-Nabû "Good is the Spirit of Nabû."[640]
[639] Tallqvist, Assyrian Personal Names. ASSF 43/1. Helsinki. 216 [640] Ibid., 216, 236f.; SAAB 5 11:3; see Parpola, Assyrian Prophecies. SAA 9. Helsinki. LXXXVII n. 69.
Lapinkivi concludes: That both zaqīqu (ghost, spirit, soul) and napištu (life) were conceived as moving air: wind, breeze or breath (coming from one’s throat). Due to its wind-like nature, the soul was depicted as a bird with wings. Zarpanitu/Ištar was described as giving life to humankind, she was the "breath of people." In iconography, Inanna is depicted with wings, as an owl, and textual evidence also equates her with a bird. It is implied then that Inanna’s own nature was equated with that of the soul.
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Post by saharda on Jul 3, 2007 11:47:47 GMT -5
I'm looking through the Udug hul texts. Do any of you happen to know the part where it talks about a demon possessing a body but failing to kill it? I can't remember the specifics, but when I first came across it I thought about it being an interesting undead reference. Anyhow if you find the line before I do, post the line number. I'm plowing through slowly so I can fully take in the text, so it may be some time before I get there.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Sept 12, 2007 7:25:54 GMT -5
Dìm-me (A limited look at early sources)
- Pictured above is a famous Assyrian Lamaštu Plaque, held at the Louvre AO 22205 - From top to bottom is the head of Pazazu; symbols of different gods; A representation of the seven with animal heads; A scene in which the sickman is tended to by two incantation specialists (priests/fish apkallu); Pictured at the bottem Lamaštu is chased by Pazazu - Dìm-me (akk. Lamaštu) is perhaps unique among the various agents of illness featured in Mesopotamian incantation lore. As is frequently noted, and stated in the texts, she is the daughter of Anu. Her name -together with two closely associated beings- is distinguished with the divine determinative although this is not commonly applied to other figures referred to as 'demons'. Her Sumerian name is written Dìm-me as in the follow ePSD entry: (2x: Old Babylonian) wr. ddim 3-me "demon" Akk. lamaštu Textually speaking, Dìm-me rarely appears outside of incantation literature, and is no where attested before the Old Babylonian period. She is listed at ePSD in an Old Babylonian lexical list which features her Sumerian name, this list is available through DCCLT -click here- . Further her name reportedly appears on an Old Babylonian god-list [ 1] and additionally, Dìm-me makes a rare appearance in the Sumerian literary texts in "A šir-gida to Ninisina (Ninisina A)" available at the Etcsl t.4.22.1 , 46-51: (In this text, Ninisina speaks to Enlil and An interceding on behalf of the sick man - she presents the case before the senior gods, she tells them:) "46-51. "The evil demons and the evil demonesses who beset mankind, Dim-me and Dim-mea who enter by night, Namtar and Asag who will not leave a man alone, stand before the man. He is robbed of sleep (?). His god who smites all 1 line unclear "This section of the šir-gida pertains to Ninisina's role as incantation priest, and illustrates a common arrangement in which a junior god (in this case Ninisina) will present a sufferer's case before a senior god [ 2]. This instance of Dìm-me therefore, is in no way a departure from this demon's more common place mentions within incantation lore where she is more prominently featured. From these sources as well as from an array of amulets and plaque's (thought to have ritual significance) its possible to derive the typical description given to Lamashtu/Dìm-me: "She is depicted both in incantations and amulets as a animal figure, with beast face, donkey ears and talons of a bird of prey, that suckles a piglet and a dog as an evidence of her unnatural and distorted maternal instinct." [ 3] Other descriptions from secondary sources mention her capacity to consume human flesh and blood and bone as in the Reallexikon der Assyriologue p.110 "Sie trinkt Menschenblut und frisst Menschenfleisch und knochen." Incantations against Lamaštu - G. Cunningham 1997 pg.108; Cunningham here says (Pertaining just to those incantations specifically against Lamaštu from the Old Bablyonian period): " A particular threat to newly born babies appears to have been posed by Lamaštu. In addition to being mentioned in incantations concerned with daimons and illnesses in general, this daimon is subject to 12 incantations. Four of these are in Sumerian - Texts 187, 188, 189 and 306. In addition versions of text 188 are known to incorporate passages in Elamite - Texts 414 and 448. The remaining Lamashtu incantations are in Akkadian - texts 346, 347, 359, 362, 394, and 396. " I have not been able to access TIM 9, but number 63 of that publication appears to be a compendium tablet (Text 187 = TIM 9 63, Text 188 = TIM 9 63, Text 189 = TIM 9 63). Further Text 306 is found in YOS XI 88 - yet van Dijk simply catalogues the text here and gives no Transliteration/Translation. Two of the Akkadian incantations are found in this book however, TEXT 394 (YOS XI 19) and TEXT 396 (YOS XI 20). The latter reads: She is fierce, she is terrible, she is a goddess, she is an Amorite and she is a she-wolf, the daughter of heaven. Her ... is the nest ... ... [...of] the threshold is [her] place. ...she drinks blood, her... she strangles babies, the weak(?) ones she gives water of...to drink. Some assorted Lamaštu incantations from Benjamin Foster (2005) [ 4] yield some interesting details, pg.402: "Her feet are those of the Anzu, her hands are unclean, the face of a ravening lion is her face.... She comes in the window, slithering like a serpent, She enters the house, she leaves a house (at will). "Bring me you sons, that I may suckle (them), and your daughters, that I may nurse (them)." This illustrates the "distorted maternal instinct." mentioned above. One of the Old Babylonian Akkadian incantations Foster lists, which (with some digging) can be identified as TEXT 346 [ NBC 1265] is particularly interesting: Anu begot her, Ea reared her, (1) Enlil doomed her a dog's face. She is tiny of hands, She is long of finger, long(er still) of nail. Her forearms(?) are ... (5) ***She came right in the front door, Slithering over the (door)post casing! She slithered over the (door)post casing, She has caught sight of the baby! Seven seizures has she done him in his belly! Pluck out your nails! Let loose your arms! (10) Before he gets to you, Ea, the warrior, as sage for the task. The (door)post casing is big enough for you, the doors are open, Come then, be gone into the (door)post casing! (15) They will surely fill your mouth with dust, your face with sand, With fine-ground mustard seeds they will fill your eyes! I exorcise you by Ea's curse; you must be gone! (20) *** Elsewhere this line is translated "Her forearms(?) are ... smeared (with blood)." [ 5] "Gleanings from the Iraq Medical Journals" by J.V. Kinnier Wilson. JNES 27 (1968)In this article the auther takes a novel approach to understanding illness in Ancient Mesopotamia, by considering the ancient examples in light the medical difficulties of modern day Iraq. This approach could certainly prove revealing about some of the more obscure and peculiar traits of Mesopotamian demons and agents of illness. Specifically relevant is Wilson's interpretation of the above incantation [ NBC 1265] which was also published by von Soden 1954. Five slightly dated lines are included in the following portion of Wilsons article: " For the remainder of this paper I turn to a brief study of two different diseases. The first is typhoid, and our concern is with an Old Babylonian Lamaštu text which was published by von Soden in 1954. In this text Lamaštu is described in the following curious way: She is small of hand but long of fingers, Her nails are long and their (?) .. befouled (?) She has entered through the house door, slipping past the door pivot, She has slipped past the door-pivot to kill the child Seven times on his belly she has struck him. The text continues with a direct demand to the demon to withdraw her fingernails from the child. At first sight this may not look like anything very specific let alone typhoid. But all attention turns upon the fingernails pressing into the abdomen (imšu) of the child, for in typhoid the diagnosis is never certain until there first appears in the region a sparse rash of "rose-spots." These are two to three mm. in diameter, and the textbook number for such initial lesions is six to ten. In terms of the diagnosis In terms of the diagnosis both the round number of "seven" and the site of the spots serve to distinguish it alike from paratyphoid and from tyhus. If these minute spots disappear, which are not permanent and disappear on pressure, should be the correct explanation of why Lamaštu was thought to have long nails (or perhaps "claws" is the better word), it would remain to explain the connection with the Iraq journals. Actually, it is here that we may turn to the Bulletin of Health and Vital statistics which has been mentioned. Understandably many Western textbooks present the disease largely from the standpoint of an unprotected person entering a typhoid zone in adult life. Iraq, however, is an area of permanent risk, and the bulletin shows typhoid as a prominent cause of infant death syndrome in the country, even during the first year. The diagnosis with thus meet the requirement, already well established, that Lamaštu was above all responsible for diseases of the young. "Dìm-me/Lamaštu appears elsewhere in incantations including those not specifically aimed against her. In these cases she is sometimes featured as a member of the seven, a good example occurs in FAOS 12 435-437: "Evil Udug, evil Ala, evil ghost, evil Galla demon, Dimme, Dima, Dimme-Lagab demons be you adjured by heaven, be you adjured by earth." [ 6] In these incantations however, she is referred to in oblique terms, her actions barely distinguishable from the other demons and so little description can be gleaned from them. The last three of the above [ dDìm-me] [ dDìm.a] [ dDìm.me.lagab] (Akk. Lamaštu, Labāşu, Aḫḫazu respectively) are closely associated and are featured together in some incantations forming a "triad" - that in later medical texts Dìm-me is said to cause jaundice, may suggest some overlap of identity within the triad (as elsewhere Aḫḫazu is given as the cause of (or is) jaundice.) Further reading: Very important in the development of an understanding of Lamaštu, would be the Lamaštu incantation series (Ive never been able to glimpse) reportedly available in: -Beschwörungen gegen die Dämonin Lamaštu. F. Kocher. Also one of the more valuable modern portraits would likly be: -Wiggermann, F.A.M (2000), "Lamaštu, daughter of Anu. A profile", in Stohl, M., Birth in Babylonia and the Bible. Its Mediterranean Setting. Styx-Brill, Groninhen, pp. 217-252. Among the Key topics not yet addressed: - Pazazu - The nature and function of the Lamaštu Amulets Notes: 1. Katz 2003 "The image of the Netherworld in Sumerian sources" pg 370 - given as "SLT 124" 2. In the actual incantations of the Old Babylonian period the junior good is most often Asalluḫi. who approaches the senior god, Enki, on behalf of the sick man. In Early dynastic incantations the former position was taken by Ningirimma (Ningirim) and the latter by Enlil - as Ninisina is identical with Gula, its interesting to note here M. Geller's comment "Ningirimma became associated in later literature with the goddess Gula, goddess of healing, and consequently is mentioned in incantations with medical texts, and she appears in ritual and incantation texts with her a-gub-ba 'ritual laver" (BASOR 1987). Im not able to expand on this presently however. Ningirimma is still periodically referred to in later incantation and sometimes dubbed "Mistress of Incantations.' 3. Aetiology of Illness in Ancient Mesopotamia, Erica Couto-Ferreria. Her description of the physical nature of Lamaštu is most relevant later sources as at least on Old Babylonian plaques -while essentially the same- features such as donkey ears were absent. 4. "From Distant Days: Myths,Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia" 1995, B. Foster - Good source book however, frustratingly, no identifying information is given for any of the texts. Its likly that since some of the OB Akkadian Lamashtu incantations were featured in B. Foster 1993, that some of those featured in this book are the same. [ 5] Available at ETACT[ 6] "Forerunners to Udug-hul: Sumerian Exorcistic incantations" Markham J. Geller Faos 12
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Post by xuchilpaba on Oct 31, 2007 23:16:09 GMT -5
***Posted by Cynsanity at groups.yahoo.com/group/TabletofDestiny/message/6389with the 'deutoronomic revolution', a part of the priesthood scholars of the ancient near east and ancient biblical studies like to call the 'JHVH alone!'-movement, gained power (probably around the time of Joshija). complete with a patriarchal system of life, the female part of their god was demonised. Where is Asherah considered a female side of God? I do not remember the ancient Isaralites putting "Hey Asherah is the female side of our God." Lilitu 'fell' along time ago. She was not a presence that one would want around as a disease bearer and known child killer. Huh? Lilitu was a known succubus in Mesopotamia, in Sumer in fact and a prostitute of Ishtar! Clealry, Lilitu and Ishtar were seperate beings. as for the Holy ghost thing, i find it doubtful considering the romantic poets had to explain Lilith because the mainstream and largely Christian audience didn't know who the hell she was. She came from the Jewish side of things. Funny, in some non Rabbi texts of Lilith all I see are multiple Liliths and her dwelling out in the desert. Nothing to do w/ sexuality. Lilitu has always been sexual since Sumer, shes a succubus, what do you expect? I'm glad the information on Lilitu has been posted. Here are some tidbits I have found. First I will refer to Raphael Patai's The Hebrew Goddess. Although this is from a Hebrew perspective I think it is helpful nonetheless in understanding the nature of Lilith. In his conclusion to Lilith (and after having stated that the career of Lilith in ancient Sumer and in Kabbalistic Judaism is "very similar"), he discusses the many similarities between Lilith and the Matronit (Shekhina), showing that they really are simply two different masks of the same goddess. How ironic since Patai totally contradicted himself there. He states this but the Zohar clearly demestrates that they are diffiernt entities: "Her rival [Lilith] anger her greatly, and she sobs and sighs because her husband [God] does not throw light upon her... her joy is deriding her, to the extent that the mistress became the handmaid and the handmaid mistress.[etc]" And here: ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/consort.html
Samael and Lilith are the unholy pair, countering God and the Matronit.
And according to the Zohar from Hurwitz: The hieros gamos between God and the Shekinah dislocate, thus strengthing Lilith's power, who attepts to take the place of of the Shekhinah. The unity of God is expressed throuh the tetragram, which according to one verision of the zohar, Lilith tears apart the unity of his divine name. It says of Lilith: ' She is it who separates the two H's from each other and prevents the entry of the W between them. When Lilith stands between the one H and the other one, then the Almighty, may His name be praised cannot join them toagther.'
As a result of this tragic devolapment, the female side of the divine personality is cut off.
Basically, your looking at the fact that Lilith seperates God from the Shekinah and thats his female side. And so with this Lilith tries to replace God's female personality and side. Maybe thats why many Neopagans believe that the Burney relief is Lilith, when it could be Ishtar, and that many believe that Lilith is an older goddess than Inanna and/or the same. Also, the fact that Lilith is slated to die sometime according to the Zohar solifies that she is a sepearte entitity from the Matronit.
Inanna has a close association with birds, especially owls. Owls are also demonic figures in Mesopotamia, assocaited w/ evil spirits and the underworld. The owl feet indicate traversing to the underworld. All the underworld symbology, its got to be Ereshkigal or Inanna. Lilitu is not associated w/ the underworld so much. The fact she is depicted benevolent looking is also stricking and not adding up w/ known demon amulet that depict Lili devouring children as a sphinx creature.
I want to note that Lilith IS vampiric by Medieval legends that arose in Europe in conjuctioning with her leaving Adam. Notice Amulet: www.ritmanlibrary.nl/c/p/exh/kabb/kab_pheb_25.html
Its suggested in Lilith's cave that Lilith may even be the basis of the Euro vampire myths, although she is more into strangling kids and her brood than draining the life of them. She is a cannibal and a vampire though.
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Post by saharda on Nov 2, 2007 15:03:54 GMT -5
Nice research xuchilpaba, but I think I should make note of something up at the top of your statement:
"Where is Asherah considered a female side of God?"
As the feminized version of Assur during the period in Assyria when they were moving somewhat towards monotheism. I also think that this may have bled over into contemporary rural Judah and Israel.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on May 28, 2008 17:35:46 GMT -5
Extract from CANE vol. III (Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination in Ancient Mesopotamia, W. Farber 1995)
She comes up from the Swamp, is fierce, terrible, forceful, destructive, powerful: [and still,] she is a goddess, is awe-inspiriing. Her feet are those of an eagle, her hands mean decay. Her fingernails are long, her armpits unshaven. She is dishonest, a devil, the daughter of Anu. In view of her evil deeds, her father Anu and her mother Antu sent her down from heaven to earth. The daughter of Anu counts the pregnant women daily, follows on the heels of those about to give birth. She counts their months, marks their days on the wall. Against those justing giving birth she casts a spell: "Bring me your sons, let me nurse them. In the mouths of your daughters I want to place my breast!" She loves to drink bubbly(?) human blood, (eats) flesh not to be eaten, (picks) bones not to be picked. (From Lamashtu series, tablet I)
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Post by xuchilpaba on May 29, 2008 19:17:51 GMT -5
I assume you're refering to Lamashtu.
I never heard of Antu before, who might this be?
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Post by madness on Jun 5, 2008 1:44:35 GMT -5
Yes it is, it's from the Lamaštu incantation series.
The god list An:Anum describes Antu as
1. An : dA-nu-um 2. An : An-tum 3. An.ki : dA-nu-um u An-tum
Litke remarks on line 2: [K. 4349 (CT 24 20 ff.)] adds an extra name which was probably KI-t[um]. This name (= erṣetum) would identify Antum with the earth and represent her as the logical counterpart of Anum "Heaven." This would help explain the equation in the following line.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 16, 2008 11:28:26 GMT -5
Post Orientation: The below content may contain a little more literary content and interest then my usual posts do - I have actually reviewed the below for a different board but feel it has enough relevance to be added here on the vampire thread. Among the relevant things in the below to me, are the mention of Lilith and links to Mesopotamian demonology, the information on the fall of Babylon, and also a possible similiarites between the ruins in Mesopotamian lamentations and Isaiah description of the foreseen ruin of Babylon amd Edom. I have developed an interest in the literary vampire and read up on the folklore and fiction. The below article was inspire by a passage from a Treatise on Vampires written 1746 by a Benedictine monk named Dom Augustine Calmet (who also was a learned biblical commentator.)
Isaiah, Lilith, and Edom In Dom Augustine Calmet's Treatise on Vampires and Revenants (1746), the author refers to an occurrence of what he interprets as a vampiric entity in the book of Isaiah. Because Calmet was a Benedictine monk, and was noted as an accomplished Biblical commentator, his observations here are worth looking into I think. The relevant material is from Chap. 16 -'Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity.' Calmet/ "I own that these terms [lamiae and striae] are found in the versions of the Holy Scripture. For instance, Isaiah, describing the condition to which Babylon was to be reduced after her ruin, says that she shall become the abode of satyrs, lamiae, and strigae (In Hebrew, lilith. This last term, according to the Hebrews, signifies the same thing as the Greeks express by strix and lamioe, where are sorceresses or magicians, who seek to put to death newborn children. Whence comes that the Jews are accustomed to write in the four corners of the chamber of a women just delivered, 'Adam, Eve, begone from hence lilith.' " Of course, Calmet although an example of the erudite of his time, was writing without the benefit of modern Biblical scholarship.. which makes me wonder what could be said about this passage in the book of Isaiah now? ______________________________ Source material and the Babylonian Context: I have taken the following description of the Babylonian context from The Illustrated Guide to the Bible. p.35. In examining the tower of Babel, and Babylon in relation to the Old Testament, the authors have explained the following/ "The materials used to build the Tower of Babel were the same as those employed for the construction of the great ziggurat of Babylon and similar ziggurats, according to ancient building inscriptions. The golden age of Babylon arrived when the Assyrian Empire fell in 613 BCE. It became the dominant imperial power of the Near East, and the restoration of the city by Nebuchadrezzar II (602-562 BCE) transformed it into one of the seven wonders of the world in Greek eyes. Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus in 539 BCE and while it remained an important city under later Achaemenid, Selucid and Parthian empires, it never again played an independent political role. Babylon becomes in the Bible much more than a historical reality. After Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and exiled many of its inhabitants (see pp.110-13) it was viewed as the embodiment of all evil, a kingdom of wickedness set against God and his chosen people, a powerful symbol of pride, oppression, wealth, luxury, sexual license and idolatry. As such, Babylon is doomed to final destruction. In Isaiah 14, the king of Babylon is described, in terms of an ancient myth, as Lucifer, the morning star, who aspired to scale heaven and challenge God himself. For his arrogance, Lucifer is cast into the underworld. The underlying theme of this story - the penalty paid for presumption - is similar to that of the Tower of Babel, as well as to that of the "fallen ones". The book of Isaiah mocks the idols which played so prominent a part in Babylonian religion and sees the city's chief deities, Marduk and Nebo, being carried into captivity (Isaiah 46 1-2). The prophet depicts Babylon as a female prisoner of war, who was once a "lover of luxury" and a practitioner of sorceries and spells, but who is now stripped of all her splendor and forced to sit in the dust (Isaiah 47). For the prophet, the imminent capture of Babylon by Cyrus is evidence that the Persian king is the chosen agent of God's vengeance (Isaiah 45, 1-7). ...The name "Babylon" cam to be applied to any empire that was seen as an enemy of God and the perscutor of his servents." [i.e Babylon in Revelations = Rome].. The Book of Isaiah (from the Jerusalem Bible) Isa 13:21 In this book, the prophet Isaiah writes in the time of captivity and is hostile to Babylon. In Isaiah 13, he composes an oracle against Babylon stating that "The day of Yehweh is coming" and he describes the various punishments he forsees for Babylon. Babylon, "the pearl of kingdoms, the jewel and boast of the Chaldaeans, like Sodom and Gomorrah shall be overthrown by god. (13:19). Some relevant lines seem to follow in/ (Isa 13:21-22) Never more will anyone live there or be born there from generation to generation. No Arab will pitch his tent there, not [sic] shepherds feed their flocks, But beasts of the desert will lie there*, and owls fill its houses. Ostriches will make their houses there and satyrs have their dances there. * Note: A footnote in the Jerusalem bible made on this line refers us to Leviticus 16:22; this is a passage that describes the scapegoat rite, and after the goat in infused with the sins of the people, it is lead out to the desert and abandoned. What is implied, is that the term "beasts of the desert" refers to these scape-goats. Isa 21:9 Another oracle about the falling of Babylon; "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground." Isa 34:11-15 - The End of Edom In this poem, the destruction of Edom is prophesied. While this locality, Edom, is not Babylon, a note in this Bible informs us that the poem in 34:11 "belongs to the cycle of anti-Babylonian compositions" and so, after Yahweh is prophesied to reduce Edom to ruin, we read lines quite similar to Isa 13:22/ (34:11) It will be the haunt of pelican and hedgehog, the owl and the raven will live there; over it Yahweh will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb-line of emptiness. (34:12) The satyrs will make their home there, its nobles will be no more, kings will not be proclaimed there, all it princes will be brought to nothing. (34:13) Thorns will grow in its palaces there, thistles and nettles in its fortresses, it will be a lair for jackals, a lodging for ostriches. (34:14) Wild cats will meet hyenas there, the satyrs will call to each other, there too will Lilith take cover seeking rest. (34:15) The viper will nest and lay eggs there, will brood and hatch its eggs; kites will gather there and make it their meeting place. Isa 47: 1-15 - Lament for Babylon A satirical poem in which Babylon is personified by the idiom of the 'daughter of Babylon', who is to "sit on the ground, dethroned." The prophet emphasizes his stance that the spells and sorceries of Babylon, which characterize it's religious outlook, will be to no avail: "Keep your spells then, and all your sorceries, for which you have worn yourself out since your youth." _______________________ Discussion: Creatures that Haunt Ruins in the book of IsaiahIsaiah 13:21 (referring to the ruin of Babylon): Beasts of the Desert, Owls, Ostriches, Satyrs Isaiah 34:11 (referring to the ruin of Edom): the Pelican, Hedgehog, Owl, Raven, Satyr, Jackels, Ostriches, Wild Cats, Hyenas, Lilith, the Viper (the latter is mentioned 34:17) It is curious that Calmet had said that in Isaiah in the prophecy of the fall of Babylon it is stated this city should "become the abode of satyrs, Lamia and strigae (ini Hebrew, Lilith). Half a page later, Calmet adds "The Seventy, In Isaiah, translate the Hebrew lilith by lamia." .. (The term here, "the Seventy", refers to seventy Jewish scholars who went to Alexandria in the 3rd century A.D. and translated various biblical works from Hebrew into Greek.) Yet it seems by the above review that the instance of Lilith (= Lamia) should be placed in the prophetic ruin of Edom rather then that of Babylon (?) In the Anchor Bible (a commentary) there is a section which deals with the zoology of the Bible, or animal names in the bible. I have been curious about the mention of the owl among the ruins and wonder if this may be translated Lamie as well? In refering to the entries for owl in the Anchor Bible, there are several instances and several Hebrew names for this bird/ Owl: (in Hebrew) tahmaš? , kos? [o with circumflex], yanšup , tinšemet, qā'at (in Akkadian) enšub/pu
A note on yanšup informs us that "the possible Akkadian equivalent enšub/pu (SB) may denote an owl of some sort. It is a bird of ill omen which frequents human habitations."
From a Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible by Van der Toorn, Becking and Van der Horst (1999)
In the discussion on Demons given by the above authors, we read some very interesting insights and I'm finding this commentary invaluable.. The most enjoyable book Ive picked up in weeks *g* .. To start with there is the comment/
"The Septuagint [the work of the seventy] uses daimonion several times in the ancient Near East [i.e Babylonian] sense of the spirits of the desert: it translates the Hebrew se'irim (wild goats, -> satyrs, goat demons; Isa 13:21), and siyyim (desert dwelling wild beats; Isa 13:14), where desert spirits are said to inhabit cities laid to waste (cf. also Bar 4:35). The book of Revelation describes the (future) fallen city of "Babylon" [here a code word meaning Rome] as "a dwelling place of demons and a haunt of every unclean and hateful bird (18:2), recalling the oracle of desert waste in Isa 13 against Mesopotamian Babylon. One of the major functions of such spirits was to bring fatal calamity: so daimon is used to designate a spirit of "famine and disease" (Sib. Or. 3.331)."
Insight into the nature of the Demons/ (Mesopotamian and Hebrew demons are discussed together in the below)
"These spirits occupied the dangerous places: the desert, the lonely wastes, the deserted by ways. -> Rabiṣu, for example, the Croucher of horrible aspect, lay in wait in dark corners and alleys (cf. Gen 4:7). The scapegoat was sent to -> Azazel, a desert demon, on the day of Atonement (Lev 16:8-28). They held power during dangerous situations and times: chiefly at night, during sleep, during a wind storm or an eclipse or the heat of mid-day, and especially in childbirth. -> Lilith, a lascivious female demon, haunted man in his dreams. The desert storm winds were thought to bring calamity and disease (cf. the Babylonian Pazuzu, king of the wind demons). The seven evil gods (cf. Deut 28:22) attacked the moon and caused eclipse, after which "they swept over the land like a Hurricane" (SAGGS 1962: 291). The >Midday demon attack the unwary with vicious ills at the height of the sun. Lamashtu, a terrifying spectre. threatened women and newborns during childbirth and stole suckling infants (cf. the Lamia and Gello of Greece). She was later identified with Lilith, who was the child-stealer in later Jewish folklore..... ..... In contrast to the gods of the upper world, these spirits were often not in human form. The shedu's of Babylon and Assyria (cf. Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37) were depicted as winged bulls. In Isa 34:14 Lilith as a carrion bird finds a nest in the desert wastes, and is joined by wild desert animals, owls and kites."
[The authors next give an explanation of Lilith in Mesopotamian contexts. For this we can refer to the above posts - see reply 11 through 15]
On Lilith/ (Van der Toorn & co. on Lilith)
"The only reference to this demon in the OT occurs in Isa 34:13. The whole chapter describes the prophetic judgment on -> Edom which will become waste land. Then all kinds of demons will dwell there: among them hyenas, tawny owls, vultures and also Lilith. The different versions and ancient translations of the OT are of some interest in this case as we can see how they interpreted "Lilith:. The LXX [the Seventy] gives the translation [onokentauros = Lamia] (cf. also LXX Isa 13:22; 34:11)........ In his commentary Jerome says: "Lamia, who is called Lilith in Hebrew. (...) And some of the Hebrews believe her to be an "[Greek char.], i.e. "fury". Still, there translations and interpretations of Lilith show her ancient connection to Lamashtu. The onokentauros of the LXX reminds us of those amulets where Lamashtu is standing upon a donkey. The Greek name Lamia might ultimately derive from Akkadian Lamashtu. ... Although Isa 34 contains the only biblical reference to Lilith, she occurs fairly often in Jewish and Christian scriptures.."
_______________________________________________
Summing/
It seems that although Calmet specified the passage regarding the ruins of Babylon (Isa 13) as that place in which the Hebrew Lilith occurs, this is more definitively attested in the prophetic ruin of Edom (Isa 34). Van der Toorn and company have explained that "In Isa 34:14 Lilith as a carrion bird finds a nest in the desert wastes" and so one is perhaps able to wonder if Lilith does make an appearence in Isa 13 after all - ? as the owl for example.. (although owl is pluralised here.) In anycase, Isa 34 is the explicit instance. Calmet does seem to have been quite on the mark with his comparison between the Greek and Hebrew demon, when he had said "strix and lamioe, where are sorceresses or magicians, who seek to put to death newborn children. Whence comes that the Jews are accustomed to write in the four corners of the chamber of a women just delivered, 'Adam, Eve, begone from hence lilith.' " Even though he may not have known it at the time, this observation is proved astute by the information Van der Toorn (& co.) provide; that Lilith assumed the demonic behaviour of Lamashtu who was a very ancient example of the child-killer and devourer. Their speculation that the name Lamia may in fact have derived from Lamashtu adds again to our understanding.
It still remains to investigate or explain possible association with owls, "a bird of ill omen which frequents human habitations" ...
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Post by xuchilpaba on Jul 20, 2008 18:30:43 GMT -5
>Even though he may not have known it at the time, this observation is proved astute by the information Van der Toorn (& co.) provide; that Lilith assumed the demonic behaviour of Lamashtu who was a very ancient example of the child-killer and devourer. Their speculation that the name Lamia may in fact have derived from Lamashtu adds again to our understanding. Yes this is what Hurwitz says. Lamashtu is much older than Lilitu. However, Lamashtu disappeared into oblivion and Lilith, despite her minor role, is insanely popular now. And was feared in medieval times. I'm not comfortable saying that Lamia stems from Lamashtu however. I think Lamia developed into her own mythos. if I remember correctly, Lilith's snake attributes didn't come into play until the medieval period of Europe with things like the Zohar, where as Lamia has always been one of the snake women of Greek myth. If anything I think the legend of Lamia influenced Lilith's legend. Lilith's later legends and painting such as the one on the church (if you want a picture I can provide) as a snake woman, probably because of the Zohar passage. Latin translations of the OT bear Lamia's name in place of Lilith and I have always found that curious. Edom is Rome. The Zohar is essentially biblical commentary. When expressing Lilith's defeat the Zohar has this to say: Zohar 3:19a When the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring about the destruction of the wicked Rome, and turn it into a ruin for all eternity, He will send Lilith there, and let her dwell in that ruin, for she is the ruination of the world. And to this refers the verse, And there shall repose Lilith and find her a place of rest (Isa. 34:14). (Patai81:466) More can be found on Alan Humm's site.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 24, 2008 11:12:36 GMT -5
Thanks Xuch - as it happens I did use Humm's site for one element of my post which is to follow below - I used he translation of the Arslan Tash amulet I , which firt niceles into some reading I wa doing. ;] cheers
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 24, 2008 11:31:25 GMT -5
***..this post is a stone caste into the abyss; a matter of guaranteed obscurity, depth, isolation and those amusing surface ripples..**** 34:14, etymology : From A treasury of Jewish Folklore by Nathan Ausubel (1975): "According to primitive belief, demons and spirits animate all natural phenomena. Jews, too, believed in th reality of demons, devils, fiends, spectre, ghosts, and spirits. Shedim (demons) and dibbukim (migrant spirits) inflicted illness upon the body, especially on the internal organs and the mind. Each illness had its own particular demon - special demons for blindness, deafness, headache, delirium, insanity, etc...despite that a belief in demons was not integral in the doctrines of Judaism, it, nontheless, was widespread among the Jews of post-Biblical times." Ausubel's examination of "Demon Tales" in this volume is entertaining in itself, but for the purposes of this thread, I would only mention one additional of his observations.. "In ancient Assyria there were three female demons called Lilit, Lilu, and Ardat Lili. The first Jewish reference to Lilith is found in Isaiah 31.14:
"Yea, the night-monster (Lilith) shall repose there, And shall find her place to rest."
As the book of Isaiah was written at about the time of captivity, one wonders if the Hebrew belief in this demoness was not a product of that same occasion. In any case, on account of its being the only reference in the bible to Lilith, this occurrence in Isaiah 34:14 had received alot of attention from commentators. (In view of previous discussion, it's interesting to note one author's mention of Calmet as a Biblical commentator on 34:14; ""Indeed the figure of Lilith herself was explained already in the eighteenth century by Dom Calmet ( Commentaire litteral, 1707-16) in his remarks in Isaiah xxxiv (XIV) if not the reference to her relation to Satan, at least with respect to her position as the first wife of Adam and as the female night-demon against whom newly-born infants were protected by medallions throughout many centuries of Jewish history.") In his article on The Devil and his imps: An Etymological Inquisition (1895), Charles P. G. Scott discusses various ways in which the entity in Isa. 34:14 is treated, (from a linguistic standpoint). His notes include different renderings of Lilith: "This is the translation of the Vulgate:
ibi cubavit lamia a 400Biblia sacra vulgalae editionis (1582) (Rome 1861, p.456).
In the Current [1895] English version it stands: The screech owl [1613 shrichowle, 1606 scrichowle[/]] [marg. Or, night-monster] also shall rest there.
In the Revised version (1884) the passage reads: Yea, and the night-monster[marg.Heb. Lilith] shall settle there.
In other versions of the Bible the Latin lamia of the Vulgate or the lilith of the Hebrew is translated thus: Dutch het nachtgedierte (1874, p. 470), 'the night-beast'; German, der Kobold (1877, p.648), en Vaette (1875, p. 702), 'a wight,' 'a goblin' ; French Vorfraie (1874, p. 623), 'the osprey' ; la Fee (1566, f. 259 verso), 'the fay' ; Spanish, lamia (1874, p. 618) ; Portugues, os animaes nocturnos (1870, p. 678), 'the night-beasts.' .... According to the Rabbins the lîlîth was a night-spectre that assumed the form of a beautiful woman who enticed children into her presence and, like the Lamia, murdered them... _______________________________________________________ Mistaken Etymology תיליל --------------- ליל
laylâ --------- lilît From the above, it's clear that throughout the last 2 millennia there has been a tendency to relate Lilith to the night, which may explain some instances of the interpretation 'screech owl' (a night hunter.) It is perhaps only in recent times that scholars have been able to object to this association on philological rounds: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia; Lilith "Lilith, a female demon in Jewish folklore. The name is the Hebraized form of the often mentioned, powerful Babylonian demon Lilitu, who, with her two associates, her husband Lilu and his maidservant, Ardat Lile, were probably storm-spirits. In later rabbinic tradition Lilith, by a false derivation from the Hebrew word layelah ('night') , was reinterpreted as a demon of night and came to play a most important role, particularly as the demon who caused sex dreams and nightly emissions by men, and robbed newborn children and their mothers of their lives, particularly during the first seven days of birth. "The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible is the most exact: "The Heb. term lîlît as a -> demon in Isa 34:14 is connected by popular etymology with the word laylâ 'night'. But it is certainly to be considered a loan from Akk. lilītu, which is ultimately derived from Sum. Líl... "Basically, because of similarity between the Sumerian LÍL (or Akkadian lilītu) and the Semitic Lyl, the original form of the demon was incidentally re-interpreted "by popular tradition". Earlier, Cyns relayed that W. Fauth: "demonstrated convincingly in his article from 1986 that it is highly probable that a secondary semantic transfer from Sumerian 'LÍL' (wind, storm, breath, air) to Semitic *ljl 'night' took place during the final demonisation of the Lilitu and her male counterpart, the Lili(m/n)" (However, this observation was most likely made by Bruno Meissner already in 1925, ( Babylonien und Assyrien ii. 201)). Even without available evidence one wonders, given that the similarity also in the Akkadian (Semitic) lilîtu and līlâtu (night), whether this transfer may have begun earlier in the Semitic Mesopotamian context. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reinterpreting the Burney Relief (The Burney Relief) The Burney relief dates from the Old Babylonian period, and has a long history of scholarly interpretation, the oldest tradition has it that this is the figure of the demon lilītu/Lilith.. Emil G. Kraeling A Unique Babylonian Relief, BSOAS 1937 Krealing believes that the Burney relief is definitively a representation of Lilîtu, supposing that the demons relation to wind accords well with the fact the figure is winged. He adds "The seductive beauty of the Female demon on this Babylonian relief is noteworthy. If it should be Lilîtu then we should have to infer (from the owls) that she was already regarded as a nocturnal demon, partly, we may suppose, because of the similarity of her name to the Semitic word for night. "A more recent opinion is that of R. Patai, " Lilith": "A Babylonian terracotta relief, roughly contemporary with [the poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld] shows in what form Lilith was believed to appear to human eyes. She is slender, well shaped, beautiful, and nude, with wings and owl-feet. She stands erect on two reclining lions which are turned away from each other and are flanked by owls. On her head she wears a cap embellished by several pairs of horns. In her hand she holds a ring-and-rod combination.. "However, as the Reallexikon der Assyriologie entry for Nackte Goettin (pg.50, Bruno Meissner et al) indicates, scholars in the field of Ancient Near East studies have tended toward more specialized explanations: "The identity of the figure on the OB Burney relief has not yet been established beyond doubt; she too is a mistress of animals and somehow involved in sexual matters ( Lilītu and Kilili as forms of Inanna, not as independent demons), Lilītu had wings and could fly (Lamashtu I u 42), and presumably as a succuba was at least occasionally naked. Sometime she is an individual female demon who can be identified with Inanna (3, Groneberg, Lob der Ishtar Ch. VII 1.2).. "The above suggests that the figure in the Burney relief is Lilītu or Kilili (a Mesopotamian owl demoness) when in the form of Inana; the below interpretation, that of T. Jacobsen, is perhaps more widely endorsed - he suggests the opposite..that the figure in the Burney relief is Inanna, in the form of Kilili. (The below sum of Jacobsens comment is by Rivkah Harris 1991.) "Relevant here is the new interpretation by Thorkild Jacobsen of the well-known Burney Relief. [referring to Jacobsen "Pictures and Pictorial Language (The Burney Relief) from Figurative Language of the Ancient Near East 1987]. The winged goddess of the plaque with bird's claws, flanked by owls and standing on two lions couchant, he believes, is Inanna as "Lady Owl" who, when named Kilili, "denotes the harlot who like the owl comes out at dusk.: He suggests that the Burney Relief may have "served as a cult-relief at the house alter of an ancient bordello." If so, and Jacobsen makes a convincing case, then the very depiction of the goddess breaks down the boundary between species, between the divine and ornithic. "__________________________________________________________________________ The Owl Demon, Kilili We come upon some interesting insights with Inanna/Ishtar's relation to these demonic entities. The connection is best seen in late sources, as Cyns post had outlined: ...."'Asherah's and 'Lilith's were the first to fall to that regime. both are etymologically connected to Ishtar (and her appearance as the Lilitu, the original kisikillila), and were both identified with the worst aspects of female existence." Gwendolyn Leick in her work Sex and Eroticism in Sumerian Literature draws on the same source (Fauth 1985) and comments similarly (note Astarte = Ishtar): [In referring to the late Mandiac texts from Syria] "In these texts the old West Semitic love-goddess Astarte seems to have fused with the Mesopotamian Lilû to personify the predatory, aggressive female sexuality (Fauth 1985). We have seen Ishtar too has affinities with demons: she is sometimes described as Kilili, or even Lamashtu. In these there late texts the independent, female and erotic deities are dangerous, unpredictable and able to promote, as well as harm, human sexuality and fertility. "As for Mesopotamian context, CAD K p. 377 has an entry for kilili which has meanings either 1. owl (as an ominous bird) or 2. (as female demon). With the latter meaning, a few textual instances are given. One text describes the demon "The kilili-demon, the queen of windows, kilili who leans into windows." And an incantation states that "he (the sick person) recites three times the conjuration "you, kilili-demon" another "you, kilili-demon, who leans into (The house) through the windows." (There are possibly parallels here with Ardat-lili as one incantation concerning that demon reads "Ardat-Lili wafts through a mans window.") Additionally, according Wiggermann 1992, the position a figurine is described in the Bīt Mēsuri ritual text: "In the window of the house shrewd Ishtar has taken seat." Wiggermann adds "this "Ishtar of the window" is perhaps identical with Kilili." _________________________________________________ Summing: The early Mesopotamian instances of Lilitu were of demons who whirled about like the wind and who caused sickness and disease, their name is derived from the Sum. LÍL. The Mesopotamians did have traditions of demons who attacked at night*, and did have an owl demon whose occurrences are however quite late: Kilili. Conceivably since Kilili and Ishtar were relatable already in some Mesopotamian texts, and in Syria Ishtar>Astarte combined with "the Mesopotamian Lilû to personify the predatory, aggressive female sexuality", then some of this ambiguity may have found it's way into the Hebrew idea of Lilith (as night or owl demon.) The first Hebrew mention of Lilith is Isa. 34:14 (the only Biblical appearance.) Currently, the best scholastic explanation for the case of Lilith appearing as 'night demon' (or any association with owls therefore) is the explanation of mistaken etymology (the post biblical confusion of Sum. LÍL and Semitic lyl.) * (for example in ETCSL t.4.22.1 Dim-me and Dim-mea are given as those "who enter by night.") _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The merging of Lamashtu/Lilith (Arslan Tash Amulet I,an 8th cen. B.C. Canaanite incantation) Identification in the 8th cen. B.C.E?Commentators who propose the identification of Lilith with Lamashtu seem often to converge on the item I have named above - an amulet found in Canaan which contains an incantation which -ostensibly- features Lilith in a role very much native to Lamashtu. To start with I have taken a small comment from The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, T.H. Gaster (1985): "Lilith is the Akkadian lilîtu, female counterpart of a type of demon called lilû. In Mesopotamian texts she appears primarily as the succuba, who tempts men in sexual dreams, and she is quite distinct from the child-stealing hag, who is known as Lamashtu. As early, however, as the eighth century B.C. - as attested by a Canaanite magical plaque from Arslan Tash in the Plain of Seruh- the two tended to become confused in the popular mind. "The Encyclopedia Judaica 1977: "Winged female demons who strangle children are know from a Hebrew and Canaanite inscription found at Arslan-Tash in northern Syria and dating from about the seventh or eighth century B.C.E. Whether or not Lilith is mention in this incantation, which adjures the stranglers not to enter the house, is a moot point, depending on the addition of a missing letter: "To her that fies in rooms of darkness- pass quickly, quickly, Lil[ith]. "From Lilith by Raphael Patai: [About Arslan Tash amulet 1] "These lines are part of an incantation text used to help omen in childbirth- one of many extent from the period of the Assyrian Empire and the new Babylonian Kingdom- and they show that by that time the myth of Lilith had all the major features which elaborated to their fill two thousand years of Kabbalistic Judaism. "The incantation itself* reads: An incantation for the flying-demoness. The "bond" of Ssm, son of Pdrsh(?). Take these and say to the she- stranglers: Any house that I enter, you are not to enter, and in any courtyard that I walk you are not to walk. An eternal bond has been established for us. Ashshur established it for us, along with all the gods and the counsultation of all the holy ones. Through the bond of heaven and earth, Through the bond of Hawron's wife, who always speaks the truth, and her seven co-wives and the eight wives of Ba'l.... O, Demoness-that-flies in a dark chamber, Get on your way at once, O Lili! O, Robbing-murderess, Go Away! Sz zt, may his [mouth] not(?) open.... May the sun rise, eternally, eternally!
* (I have obtained this translation at the following site[/i]. The owner claims the translation is a faithful rendering of the version present in Pritchard's ANET 658 , with the exception of the line pertaining to Lilith (Lili), where is has followed Patai.) Identification in the Middle Babylonian Period? Referring again to the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible by Van der Toorn, Becking and Van der Horst, I should mention I had made a mistake above when attributing the comments on Lilith in the book to "Van der Toorn & co." .. on close inspection the contribution on Lilith is made by M. Hutter (who also wrote Daemonen und Zauberzungen. Aspekte der Magie im Alten Vorderasien, Grenzgebiete der Wissenschaft (1988). Hutter says about this incantation that "The traditional reading of Arslan Tash amulet I (ANET 658) suggests that she was revered in Phoenicia. A reconsideration of the original, however, forces a reading il wym 'night and day' instead of ily[... Lili[th] .. (Buttereck TUAT II/3:437)." And so, the above comments and translation become partially invalidated by this. However, even in overturning the mention of Lilith in the Arslan Tash amulet -which seems to have had quite the presence in scholarship relating to Lilith- Hutter still maintains the identification with Lamashtu. In doing so, he draws on references given by Fauth 1985, Lackenbacher 1971, and his on work 1988; he states that lilītu and (w)ardat lilî are attested in texts as creatures of abnormal sexuality, who stroll about searching for men in order to ensnare them or enter the house of a man through the window. Its added "in this respect we can compare these demons with Ishtar who stands at the window looking for a man in order to seduce him, love him and kill him. The fact that Lilith's sexuality is not a regular kind of sexuality is also illustrated by references which show that cannot bear children and that she has no milk but only poison when she gives her breast as deceitful wetnurse to the baby. In all these aspects Lilith as a character similar to that of Lamashtu. Thus, since the Middle Babylonian period Lilith and Lamashtu have been assimilated to each other. This also led to the spreading of Lilith from the Mesopotamian to the Syrian area." _________________________________
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Post by xuchilpaba on Jul 24, 2008 15:51:03 GMT -5
Nice work. I think the B.relief is Inanna though. And I do not believe that Killi [etc] and Inanna are the same.
I got some more for you. Remember the hand of Inanna/Ishtar you were telling me about? That curse has something to do with Lilitu, in one passage it says: "Inanna has sent the beautiful, unmarried, and seductive prostitute Lilitu out into the fields and streets in order to lead men astray" That is why Lilitu is called the "hand of Inanna'. <Hurwitz p.58>
This is also true of the hand of Ishtar. So just like a normal Mesopotamian demon; Lilith was sent to do harm by the gods. I've head of Lilitu's connection to Anzu birds (As a strorm demon Lilitu, and Lamashtu's feet is of the Anzu.) and Enlil, but I have problems finding the references to Enlil. Care to help?
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Post by saharda on Jul 27, 2008 22:07:33 GMT -5
Most of the connection to Enlil is tangential. Lilitu are wind demons (thus the lil in the name) and Enlil is lord of the winds and all that reside within. It would make sense if they took orders from Enlil. On the other hand place is also important, and perhaps the demons were most feared in cities where Enlil was not as prominent.
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