Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

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READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
circle are placed around it. The practitioner then covers the figurine with an
unfired fermenting vat. For three days and nights, the covered figurine is to be
left outdoors while an exorcist (āšipu) places loaves and juniper censers by day
(ana pāni Šamaš) and pours out emmer flour by night (ana pāni kakkabī mūšītim).
Day and night, the exorcist recites a short incantation directed at the ghost. In
the evening of the third day, the practitioner must prepare a ritual before Shamash.
The patient then raises the figurine and recites the incantation that is the
principle subject of this treatment. Following this incantation, the practitioner
must place the figurine in a pot and bind it by an oath. The ritual ends with the
instructions to “bury it in abandoned wastelands.”
Under the guidance and instruction of the practitioner (kīam tušadbabšu,
“you shall make him recite as follows”), the patient recites the longest incantation-prayer
of the ritual, Shamash 73. One of the textual witnesses to the prayer
lacks any associated ritual (Scurlock’s MS C). The existence of this tablet suggests
that the prayer circulated independently of the ghost ritual. For this reason, it is
possible that a compiler simply plugged the prayer into the ritual. This may account
for the apparent differences between the description of the disease in the
protasis of the ritual (“ghost,” “an evil alû-demon or a mukīl rēš lemutti-demon”)
and the description in lines 29 and 30 of the prayer (“an utukku-demon, a rābiṣu
demon, a ghost, a lilû-demon, paralysis, dizziness, numbness of the flesh, vertigo,
stiffness, [and] confusion”). Only eṭemmu, “ghost,” is common between them.
The structure of the prayer is as follows:
I) Invocation
A) The god’s name and honorific titles (19–22)
B) Praise for the god’s nature and special skills (23–27a)
II) Petition
A) Self-introduction (27b)
B) Acknowledgement of reverential stance vis-a-vis the god (27c)
C) Lament (28–30)
D) Plea (31–34a)
III) Conditional call for agreement and rejoicing (34b–35)
The invocation first calls on Shamash by name and by several of his honorific
titles. These highlight his role among the gods and among people. It then
praises his various talents. He is judge, bringer of light and warmth to all humankind
and even to the animals. The invocation takes up the important theme
of judge a second time. Here the supplicant reminds Shamash that he makes
right the verdicts of the wronged man and woman. The invocation thus sets the
stage for the petition. The petition itself begins with a common formulaic selfintroduction
that leads directly to a lament in which the supplicant recounts
their condition: exhausted and bound (iʾiltu iʾʾilanni, “a binding has bound me”)
by an angry god or goddess. Here, with reference to ritual behavior, the supplicant
indicates that they are standing before Shamash. The prayer unfolds the
details of how they are bound. At this point, the plea, returning to the theme of
Shamash as judge, calls on Shamash to render a verdict in the supplicant’s case