The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Late Babylonian intellectual life —
purifying exorcist to heal the [numerous] people, and the lamentation [singer, for]
appeasing the heart, [for] prognostication, rites of intercession, and lamentations.
(Al-Rawi and George 1994: 138)
These statements clearly define the role and purpose of the craft of lamentation, which
was to appease the hearts of the angry gods with chanting and performing rites of
intercession. As for the exorcist, his role was not only to heal and purify. He was also
a magical practitioner who reconciled the ailing worshiper to his deity. This was the
purpose of a widespread form of ritual accompanied by incantations and prayers known
as sˇu’illa. Prevention and cure, spiritual as well as physical, were both placed under
the care of the exorcist, who thus occupied a paramount place in a culture where
diseases were often explained as the strike of a deity or demon, or attributed to the
abandonment of the worshiper by his personal god. Thus, it seems fair to say that
the general purpose of the craft of the exorcist was to prevent and conjure up the
punishments sent by the gods. Finally, in a culture where omens were viewed as
warning signs sent by the gods to humans, the goal of the diviner’s craft, the science
of omens and, above all, of extispicy was to interpret these signs and foresee the will
of the gods and their intentions towards humans.
If we follow this line of reasoning, we come to the inescapable conclusion that the
foundations of Babylonian intellectual life were theological. Indeed, the exorcist,
lamentation singer, and diviner were essentially clerics in the employment of the
temple. They played an important role in the cult, and their offices were remunerated
by the temple, sometimes with a prebendal income. It is important to keep in mind
that in the intellectual history of the ancient world, the Babylonians stand at the
very polar opposite of the Epicurean school. Epicurus espoused the goal of liberating
his fellow humans from the fear of nature and of the gods. Epicurean gods lived in
a state of bliss analogous to ataraxia, never interfering in the lives of humans. The
Babylonians, on the contrary, were hopelessly and unremittingly dependent upon the
gods. Their scholars acted as mediators between them and the supernatural world,
trying to alleviate the effects of that abject dependence. The entire corpora and disciplines
of the exorcist, lamentation singer, and diviner make perfect sense as a vast
intellectual construction celebrating the absolute power of the gods and alleviating
human subjection to their unfathomable will. When seen in this light, the ancient
view that attributed most of these crafts to the god Ea seems perfectly comprehensible.
In Mesopotamian myths of the deluge it is Ea who issues a warning about the impending
flood, thereby saving humans from the ire of the god Enlil, who had decreed
their destruction. Ea’s revelation of the crafts of the exorcist and lamentation singer
completed his friendly deed toward humans, as it provided them with the knowledge
necessary to prevent and cure the destructive effects of divine anger.
Of course, we must not lose sight of the fact that our sources stem largely from
individuals who operated within the context of the temple, its cult and rituals, and
whose sole raison d’être was worshiping the gods. Therefore, the assessment of Babylonian
knowledge exclusively as a theology may distort a reality which was far more
complex. Indeed, there is little doubt that certain fields and traditions of knowledge
operated relatively free of religious assumptions. Medicine and astronomy are cases
in point. The main branch of medicine was known as the asûtu. The asû was a physician,
surgeon and herbalist, and during the earlier periods of Mesopotamian history
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