[Title] Anu begot her [Alternate Title] Incantation against Lamashtu [Akkadian Title] [Translation] Anu begot her, Ea reared her, ~(1) Enlil doomed her the face of a lioness. She is furious, She is long of hand, long(er still) of nail. Her forearms(?) are smeared (with blood).* (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, valiant Ea, sage of the (magician's) craft, The (door)post casing is big enough for you, ~the doors are open, Come then, be gone into the open country! ~(15) I will surely fill your mouth with sand, your face with dust, Your eyes with finely ground mustard seeds!* I exorcise you by Ea's curse: you must be gone! ~(20) [Explanatory Notes] Literature: Landsberger, JNES 17 (1958), 53 note 7, 57; Farber, ZA 71 (1981), 72; ;Veldhuis in Abusch, ed., Magic, 42–45; Wiggerman in Stol, Birth in Babylonia, 231–232; Edzard, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/4 (2002), 542–544.<br />*Notes to Text: (2) Or: “dog's face.” (3–5) Differently Wasserman, Style, 34. (16–19) Wasserman, Style, 163.<br /> <br /> [Publication] Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses, 3rd edition; 2005, (p. 173) [Publisher URL] http://www.cdlpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=54 [Source] Text: Keiser, BIN 2 72; Edition: von Soden, OrNS 23 (1954), 337–344 [Date] [Language] [Medium] [Find Spot] [] Incantation texts ---------------------------------------- [Title] The cedar [Alternate Title] [Akkadian Title] [Translation] O Shamash, I place to my mouth sacred cedar, (1) For you I knot it in a lock of my hair, For you I place in my lap bushy cedar. I have washed my mouth and hands, (5) I have wiped my mouth with bushy cedar, I have tied sacred cedar in a lock of my hair, For you I have heaped up bushy cedar. Cleansed now, to the assembly of the gods [1] draw I near for judgment. (10) O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of prayers and divination. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! O Shamash, I place incense to my mouth, … sacred cedar, let the incense linger! (15) Let it summon to me the great gods. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! O Shamash, I hold up to you water of Tigris and Euphrates, Which has carried to you cedar and juniper from the highlands. (20) Wash yourself, O valiant Shamash, Let the great gods wash with you. And you too, Bunene, faithful messenger, Wash yourself in the presence of Shamash the judge. O Shamash, to you I hold up something choice, (25) … sacred water for the flour. O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of prayers and divination, Seated on thrones of gold, dining from a tray of lapis, Come down to me that you may dine, that you may sit on the throne and render judgment. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! O Shamash, I hold up to you a lordly tribute, Which in the courtyard* of the gods [ ] to you. (35) O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad l[ord of prayers] and divination, Seated on thrones of gold, dining from a tray of lapis, Come down to me that you may sit on the throne and render judgment. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! (40) O Shamash, I hold up to you seven and seven sweet loaves, The rows of which are ranged before you. O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of divination, Seated on thrones of [gold], dining from a tray of lapis, (45) Come [down to me] that you may eat, That you may sit on the throne and render judgment. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! O Shamash, I hold up to you the plentiful yield of the gods, the radiance of the grain-goddess. (50) O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of divination, In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! O Shamash, I have laid out for you the plentiful yield of the gods, the radiance of the grain-goddess, O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of prayer and divination, (55) In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! Take your seat, O valiant Shamash, Let there be seated with you the great gods, Let Anu, father of heaven, Sin, king of the tiara, (60) Nergal, lord of weaponry, Ishtar, lady of battle Be seated with you. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth! [Explanatory Notes] [1] Or: “cleansed for the assembly of the gods.”<br /> [Publication] Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 3rd ed., 2005 (p. 209) [Publisher URL] http://www.cdlpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=54 [Source] Text: Hussey-van Dijk, YOS 11 22; Edition: Goetze, JCS 22 (1968), 25–29. [Date] [Language] [Medium] [Find Spot] [] Incantation texts ---------------------------------------- [Title] Horns of gold [Alternate Title] Love charm [Akkadian Title] [Translation] (a) Love charm, love charm! ~(1) His horns are of gold, His tail is of pure lapis, It is placed in Ishtar's heart. (b) I called to her, but she did not come back to me, ~(5) I whistled* at her,[1] but she did not look at me. If she is "consecrated," may her lover fall, If she has been taken, may her accuser fall.[2] (c) (May this) marriageable girl, a young lady of good family, Fall at my clamor, at my call. [3] ~(10) May the dough fall from her hands,[4] May the young man fall who is at her side. (d) Don't lock your house against me, Don't even look at the latchstring in your hand! Look at me as if I were (your) tether, Lick me over as if I were (your newborn) calf!*~(15) Why did you wrap your head with my love, like a headband? Tie it around your waist, like a belt? Stroke your [body] with [the happly glow] of my fa[ce],* as if it were oil?[5] (fragmentary lines) [Explanatory Notes] [1] This may refer to the prolonged hiss that serves throughout the Near East today as a “wolf whistle.”<br />[2] As WGL suggests, this couplet seems to refer to the speaker's proprietary attitude toward the girl's virginity. If she is pure, may any would-be lover not deflower her; if she has been deflowered, may her accuser not prove his case.<br />[3] “Call” has a double meaning here, as it was also the term for claiming the bride at her father's house (Finkelstein, RA 61 [1967], 127–136).<br />[4] This and the next line may refer to domestic tasks, one involving food preparation and the other child care (her younger brother?), that the beloved will be unable to perform while the charm affects her heart.<br />[5] That is, by what power does she appropriate his love and well-being to herself, leaving him with nothing?<br />Literature: Westenholz, OrNS 46 (1977), 206–207; Cavigneaux, ASJ 18 (1996), 36; N.A.B.U. 1998/74.<br />*Notes to Text: (3) Cavigneaux, ASJ 18 (1996), 36 note 10. (6) Reading a-aÓ-zu-Íi and deriving from azû, Óezû (etc.) “hiss.” (15) Cavigneaux, ASJ 18 (1996), 36. (18) WGL; z[i-mi]-ja? (collated). [Publication] Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses, 3rd edition; 2005, (p. 199) [Publisher URL] http://www.cdlpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=54 [Source] Text: Hussey-van Dijk, YOS 11 87. [Date] [Language] [Medium] [Find Spot] [] Incantation texts ---------------------------------------- [Title] O baby who dwelt in the dark [Alternate Title] [Akkadian Title] [Translation] O baby who dwelt in the dark, ~Out you came and saw the daylight. Why do you cry? why do you [wail?] ~And why did you not cry before you were born? You've roused the house god, the bull-man has woken: ~"Who was it roused me? who was it made me jump?" "The baby roused you! the baby made you jump!" ~"Like a drinker of wine, like one born in a tavern: ~~Let slumber befall it!" [Explanatory Notes] The composition's rubric classifies it as an "incantation to pacify a baby"; in modern generic terms no doubt it was a lullaby. [Publication] [Publisher URL] [Source] W. Farber, Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie 71 (1981) 62 rev. 1-11 [Date] 18th century BC [Language] Old-Babylonian [Medium] clay tablet [Find Spot] [] Incantation texts ----------------------------------------