Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

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READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
concrete examples how the present categorization of prayer cuts across known
Mesopotamian scribal categories and how this informs and refines the present
understanding of prayer. The discussion will also suggest, however, that there is
an interpretive benefit in maintaining modern constructions of categorization
despite the important ancient scribal rubrics and superscripts that have come
down to us.
Consider the following two texts. Each is the ritual wording of a (different)
shaziga-ritual that was used to remedy a man’s sexual impotence. The Sumerian
term šà-zi-ga (Akk. nīš libbi, “rising of the heart”) was the rubric scribes used to
classify the purpose of these rituals. They normally placed the rubrics at the end
of the text. The superscript én, discussed further below, marks the beginning of
the ritual’s wording recited in the course of the ritual.
én: Let the wind blow (lillik)! Let the grove quake (linūš).
Let the clouds gather (lištakṣir)! Let the moisture fall (littuk)!
Let my potency be (lū) flowing river water!
Let my penis be (lū) a (taut) harp string
So that it will not slip out of her! tu 6 én. 32
én: O Adad, canal inspector of heaven, son of Anu,
Who gives oracular decisions for all people, the protector of the land,
At your supreme command which cannot be opposed,
And your faithful affirmation which cannot be altered,
May NN son of NN, become stiff (limgug) 33 for NN, daughter of NN,
may he come into contact with (limḫaṣ), mount (lirkab), and
penetrate (lišērib) (her)! tu 6 én. 34
The second text begins with an invocation of a supra-human being; there
are several honorific epithets and statements intended to glorify the deity; and
the text concludes with a complex petition (note the four precatives) for the deity
to act upon. It becomes clear in the course of the prayer that the deity is construed
as benevolent because a) he is assumed to be interested in hearing the
prayer and b) he is assumed to be capable of acting upon it for the benefit of the
supplicant. This text is clearly a prayer according to the definition developed
above (more specifically, modern scholars call this text an “incantation-prayer,”
about which see page 24 below). 35
32
Robert D. Biggs, Šà.zi.ga: Ancient Mesopotamian Potency Incantations (TCS 2; Locust Valley: J. J.
Augustin, 1967), 35 (text no. 15). Line 19, the last line of the ritual, gives the purpose of this
ritual-prayer as šà-zi-ga. The translation is Biggs’, only slighted adjusted here and in the following
in that I have not translated the opening and closing formulae (én and tu6 én).
33
CAD A/140 notes an emendation to Biggs’ text that I have incorporated here: li-e-gu-ug should
be read li-im ! -gu-ug.
34
Biggs, Šà.zi.ga, 42 (text no. 23). Line 13 gives the following rubric after the wording and before
the ritual: ka-inim-ma šà-zig-ga, “the wording of a shaziga.” NN is a placeholder, meaning
“so-and-so.” The actual names of the people involved would be filled in during the ritual.
35
Mayer, UFBG, 378 identifies this incantation-prayer as Adad 8.