Position in chronology
SAA 10 238. Expelling an Evil Demon (ABL 0024) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Marduk-šakin-šumi. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (5) The crown prince is well; Šamaš-šumu-ukin is well. (7) Concerning the rites accompanying the incantation "Verily You are Evil" about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, they are performed to drive out the evil demon and epilepsy. (10) As soon as something has afflicted him (= the patient), the exorcist rises and hangs a mouse and a shoot of a thornbush on the vault of the (patient's) door. The exorcist dresses in a red garment and puts on a red cloak.…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333976/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / dPA dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lik-ru-bu DI-mu a-na DUMU—LUGAL / DI-mu a-na mdGIŠ.NU₁₁—MU—GI.NA / ina UGU né-pe-še šá ÉN* ḪUL.GÁL ḪÉ.ME.EN / ša LUGAL be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / a-na a-lu-u lem-nu u AN.TA.ŠUB.BA / na-sa-ḫi ep-pu-šu ki-ma mi-i-nu / il-ta-pat-su LÚ.MAŠ.MAŠ i-tab-bi / PÉŠ.QA.GAZ! NUNUZ GIŠ.NIM / ina šib-še-ti…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333976.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333976). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333976/.
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