Any Evil, a Stalking Ghost, and the Bull-Headed Demon
-
Daniel Schwemer
Abstract
Based on first-millennium cuneiform manuscripts from Aššur, Babylon, and Uruk, this article offers an edition of a ritual against an illness conceptualized as the demon ‘Any Evil’. The text sheds light on how the catch-all figure Any Evil corresponds to the idea of a universal cure for any physical ailment, and how the rhetoric of the incantation articulates this relationship and facilitates the active participation of the patient. The ritual instructions of this and a closely related text show that Any Evil is envisaged as a bull-headed, male demon. This points to an adaptation of motifs that are typically associated with ghosts in ancient Mesopotamian thought and raises questions concerning the pictorial representation of Any Evil and its conceptual foundations.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf
- Jutta Börker-Klähn
- Abhandlungen
- Any Evil, a Stalking Ghost, and the Bull-Headed Demon
- Companions of Nabonidus
- The Nabonidus Inscription in Sela (Jordan): Epigraphic Study and Historical Meaning
- New Evidence for Ugaritic and Hittite Onomastics and Prosopography at the End of the Late Bronze Age
- The Postdeterminativeki in the Hittite Cuneiform Corpus
- Statues and Votive Vessels from Tulūl al-Baqarāt
- The Core-formed Glass Vessels from Middle Assyrian Aššur
- Buchbesprechungen
- Alfonso Archi: Administrative Texts: Allotments of Clothing for the Palace Personnel (archive L. 2769). With the collaboration of Gabriella Spada. (Archivi Reali di Ebla, Testi 20). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018. xiv+279 S., 48 Tf. 21.5 × 30.5 cm. ISBN 978-3-447-11020-4. Preis: € 128.00 [D]/131,60 [A].
- Alwin Kloekhorst: Kanišite Hittite. The Earliest Attested Record of Indo-European. (Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section One, Near And Middle East, Volume 132). Leiden: Brill, 2019. xii+303 pp. Hardback. ISBN 978-90-04-39791-0. Preis: €154.0 / $185.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf
- Jutta Börker-Klähn
- Abhandlungen
- Any Evil, a Stalking Ghost, and the Bull-Headed Demon
- Companions of Nabonidus
- The Nabonidus Inscription in Sela (Jordan): Epigraphic Study and Historical Meaning
- New Evidence for Ugaritic and Hittite Onomastics and Prosopography at the End of the Late Bronze Age
- The Postdeterminativeki in the Hittite Cuneiform Corpus
- Statues and Votive Vessels from Tulūl al-Baqarāt
- The Core-formed Glass Vessels from Middle Assyrian Aššur
- Buchbesprechungen
- Alfonso Archi: Administrative Texts: Allotments of Clothing for the Palace Personnel (archive L. 2769). With the collaboration of Gabriella Spada. (Archivi Reali di Ebla, Testi 20). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018. xiv+279 S., 48 Tf. 21.5 × 30.5 cm. ISBN 978-3-447-11020-4. Preis: € 128.00 [D]/131,60 [A].
- Alwin Kloekhorst: Kanišite Hittite. The Earliest Attested Record of Indo-European. (Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section One, Near And Middle East, Volume 132). Leiden: Brill, 2019. xii+303 pp. Hardback. ISBN 978-90-04-39791-0. Preis: €154.0 / $185.00.
