What do we mean by “magic”?

1No distinction can be made between ancient Mesopotamian magic and religion along the lines proposed by Sir James Frazer and still quoted in the literature even by those who think that they have exorcised his ghost. Natural magic, which is what Frazer described, with its principles of homeopathy and contagion and its automatic results, is an invention of Hellenistic Greek philosopher-scientists. The magic of actual practitioners of magic, with the exception of the European Renaissance magico-philosophers upon whose practices Frazer based his definition of magic, was not natural magic. It was demonic magic. This was never automatic because it required the cooperation of listening spirits with minds of their own and not always different from the great gods of the pantheon.¹ The dromena (ritual actions) supplemented the legomena (recitations) in communicating to these spirits just what was expected of them and persuading or, for spirits way at the bottom of the divine pecking order, forcing them, to do what was required.²

2Nonetheless, despite the participation of sentient spirits in both religion and magic, it is possible in ancient Mesopotamia to divide out religious practices from magical ones on the following terms. Rituals performed in private by temple servants from which the god(dess) was expected to benefit and festivals performed in public that were designed to cement the relationship between man and god(dess) for the benefit of the community as a whole are what we may recognize as religious practices. Rites designed to benefit private individuals, whether or not at another’s expense, are readily recognisable as magic.

3There is nothing inherently contradictory between religious and magical practices. In Mesopotamia, there was a close relationship between the two – not just tolerance but actual cooperation. The great gods of the pantheon are not only cited as the sources of magical recitations,³ but they also served as guarantors of the efficacy of magical rites, as we shall see. In addition, what would usually be referred to as magic was employed in the manufacture and “opening of the mouth” of divine statues and ritual paraphernalia used in the cult, such as drums.⁴

4Of course, there were magical rites that were negatively sanctioned, known as kišpu (Biblical kesheph). These were very nasty rituals designed to produce the death and destruction of another person. This sort of thing did happen, or was supposed to happen, and could be prosecuted by law, although the usual response was to engage in counter magic.⁵ Other practices in which the behaviour of another person was in some way constrained had an odour of impropriety about them. Neither was healing magic, the most common use of magical practices, entirely without problematic overtones – one had to be very careful to dispose of remains of a magical ritual where another person would not inadvertently come into contact with it.

Magical protection of animals

5At every point in the trajectory, animals were involved. First and foremost, domestic animals needed to be protected from the baleful attentions of predators, as well as demons of disease:⁶

The A[sak]ku-demon made his bed among the mares and horses. He filled the donkeys’ mouths with dust; he altered (the appearance) of their dung. He did not allow the pregnant donkey mares widening their wombs to bring out straightaway (from) their wombs. The suckling foal did not [suck] the milk. In their stables he estab[lished] mourning.⁷

6The response to this threat was, as is typical for Mesopotamian medicine in general, multifaceted. First, there was treatment to be applied, as the text specifically requires, to all of the animals and not just those that were visibly ill.⁸ For this purpose, imḫur-lim, imḫur-ešra, tarmuš, “lone plant”, “lone plant” seed, sikillu, elkulla, elikulla, amelānu, raqqu-tortoise shell, šeleppû-tortoise shell, irgiṣu, ḫilammu, kaziru, white asu-myrtle, fish oil, pig fat, ghee, bitumen and pitch were to be melded together to produce a salve.⁹ The plants included in this salve were otherwise used by ancient Mesopotamians to treat fevers, particularly those, such as that of Lamaštu, that produced changes in the patient’s excrement. They also acted as nervine tonics, relaxing constriction and eliminating muscle spasms while restoring strength. The turtle flesh was specifically used in easing childbirth. In other words, the medicines were designed to treat (and to prevent the spread of) the conditions attributed to the Asakku demon.

7The accompanying bit of magic took advantage of the fact that the plant medicines in question were also closely associated with treating ailments attributed to ghosts, as well as to the demoness Lamaštu. Ghosts and demoness came together annually in the ghost festival of the month of Abu when visiting family ghosts were appealed to by magical rituals to take various evils, specifically including Lamaštu, back with them when they returned to the Netherworld.¹⁰ Prominent in the offerings for this summer festival was flesh from both Tigris and Euphrates turtles, as is specified in the list of medicines for the salve.¹¹

8Once the horses were all salved up, seven reed altars were to be erected, one each to a series of Sumerian divinities, namely to Enki (god of wisdom), Utu (sun-god and god of justice), Asalluḫi (god of healing), the personal god and goddess of the stable owner, Ninsun (mother of Gilgameš) and Šakkan, her husband, the last two being patrons of the herds.¹² Each of these divinities, whom the accompanying Sumerian or Sumerian/Akkadian bilingual recitations (recited three times) were meant to alert to the problem, got the god’s share of a sacrificed sheep: a leg, caul fat and part of the roasted meat;¹³ this was in consideration of their acting as guarantors of the rite. Strikingly, the family ghosts also got kispu-offerings, indicative of their role in herding away the disease-causing demons to the Netherworld.¹⁴

9The site for the ritual was prepared by putting down reed šutukku-huts and erecting an urigallu-standard; a pit was dug before the šutukku-huts.¹⁵ A virgin she-goat was tied up and thrown into the pit, her escape route being blocked by laying pieces of wood across the entrance.¹⁶ She was destined quite literally as a scapegoat, an absorbing pad for evils to be transferred into her from the horses. Come nightfall, the horses were made to pass over the makeshift cover hopefully leaving their troubles in the pit with the goat.¹⁷ To make sure, three adult male goats, one for each of the watches of the night, were sequentially passed by the horses, along with three different types of ritual drum and appropriate fumigants.¹⁸ Last but not least, the horses were purified using water from the holy water basin.¹⁹

Magical protection from animals

10Horses were, obviously, friends of man. On the other hand, even relatively domesticated animals could be dangerous in and of themselves. This was especially true of the rabid dog against whom could be recited a charm containing his chilling portrait: “He is long of leg, quick at running. He is short of sustenance, poor in food. His semen is suspended from his teeth; wherever he bites, he leaves behind his child”.²⁰ Equally to be feared was the tiny but ferocious scorpion: “Wolf of the bedroom, lion of the storeroom. Its horns are pointed like those of a wild bull; its tail is turned back like that of a mighty lion.”²¹

11In an agricultural society, insect pests and especially locust plagues²² needed to be protected against. There were perfectly practical solutions to this problem: insecticidal plants were certainly known, and one Neo-Assyrian letter mentions the practice of fumigating locust eggs to “overthrow’ them at their hatching. However, as with medicine, a bit of magic was in order.²³ So, for example, in addition to burning parts of the field where the locusts were, it was advisable to melt seven wax figurines of the offending insects and to bury the remains in the field, accompanied by prayers to the winds to carry off the insects and an offering to Ninkilim.²⁴

Hunting magic

12Lions, besides being a danger to domestic animals, also threatened nearby humans. Keeping this threat under control will have been one of the motivations for the development of lion hunting as the sport of kings, a ritual reorganization of the universe from a place of war to a place of peace.²⁵ Defeated enemy kings, represented by the lions, were made to submit by rolling the dead lions over before the Assyrian monarch. Subsequently, the bodies were used in the performance of the classic hunter’s ritual in which they were laid before an altar to the goddess Ištar, their patroness as well as the goddess of war. Accompanied by eunuchs playing the balag-psalter and the burning of incense, a special form of libation, referred to in the texts as a merditu-offering,²⁶ was poured onto their heads as was done also for enemy kings.²⁷As with all hunter’s rituals, this libation did honour to the dead and ensured the continuation of the species: an end to individual animals not an end to animals; an end to individual kings, not an end to kingship. Magic also came in handy when hunting birds. A good recitation and the wings would fall off, allowing the bird to get entangled in the fowler’s net.²⁸

Magical protection from bad omens connected with animals

13Certain types of animal behaviour portended evil for human beings.²⁹ As with all ill-omened observed phenomena, the portended evil could be cancelled by a special type of magic known as a NAM.BÚR.BI. For example, red ants that appeared in a man’s house were bought off with an offering of beer poured into their anthill accompanied by a recitation to the goddess of the Netherworld Ereškigal whose messengers they were.³⁰ More practically, a mixture of alkali and borax (?) poured into the anthill acted as the Mesopotamian equivalent of ant sticks. One could also dig up the nest with a tamarisk shovel and dump the lot into the nearest river or canal.³¹ Not exactly observational, but in the same category of needing cancellation, was having had intercourse with a goat. Fortunately a special egerasty ritual was devised for this specific purpose.³²

14Shelducks that had the ill grace to flock over a person’s head required capturing a pair of the offending birds. The birds got a nice meal and were released unharmed but unbeknownst to them they were the recipients of tainted offerings. Demonic magic does not work unless paid for. However, the acceptance of the payment binds the recipient by quasi-contract to perform what is required of him/her. This quasi-contract may be turned into a real contract by forcing the demon to swear an oath to this effect, a common strategy when the demonic problem-causer was a ghost.³³

15Moreover, it is not unusual (as with our shelducks) for the offerings to act as a conduit of transfer, giving the problem being gotten rid of (the bad omen) to the recipient of the offerings (the birds). To accomplish this, the patient was rubbed off with flour mixed with well water and it was this ill-omened paste that was fed to the birds. To ensure that the bad omen could not find its way back, the pair of birds were released in opposite directions with the male to the east and the female to the west. This action was accompanied by a prayer to the sun god Šamaš and followed by various purificatory rites.³⁴

16The strange bird that appeared in a man’s house (not apparently those that actually lived there) was not so lucky. After getting waved round as part of the ritual offerings and prayers he was fed with greenery used to rub the man and then entombed with a dead man preparatory to the final transfer rites.³⁵ It was at least possible to substitute a clay bird for the real one,³⁶ which was more than could be said for the gardener who would have found a stray left shoe in his gate the next morning.³⁷ Presumably he would have known better than to try it on. In most of these rituals, a clay figurine of the ill-omened animal ended up being dumped in the river, as for example the dog that barked or howled or spattered a man with urine, whose figurine was clothed in goat hair and provided with horse bristle as a tail.³⁸

Magical protection by animals

17What can harm can also protect, if only by warding off other evils. This was especially true of demonic spirits of mixed animal/human form, many of whom were regarded as at least potentially friendly and protective.³⁹ Dogs were not generally kept as pets, but their uses in hunting and as guard dogs were fully appreciated. Supplementing the actual guardians, magical dog figurines were buried beneath the floors of gateways inscribed with their instructions: “Don’t think it over, bite!”. The demon Šulak, too could be kept at bay by similar burial of the lion-man at the entrance to the lavatory.⁴⁰

18Attested archaeologically are numerous animal charms made from semi-precious stones to be worn around the neck, wrists or ankles of infants, toddlers and adults as an apotropaion to protect them from harm. Of these the most familiar is probably the cow with calf motif as seen in the Nimrud ivories.⁴¹ Animal charms made from precious metals also figure in the texts as, for example, little gold dogs to divert the wrath of Gula, goddess of medicine.⁴² Animals also feature in the historiolae that explain the origin of magical spells. The most colourful example of this phenomenon is the mini-legend of the Cow of Sîn (the moon-god) that features in childbirth rituals. As imagined, the moon-god found it impossible to resist a particularly well-endowed cow, who was understandably rather distressed at the results of his amorous attentions.⁴³

Animals in the heavens and netherworld

19Fearsome demons not infrequently took animal form, as did the constellations, those evil gods who had tried to prevent the arrival of finite time and, with it, the creation of animals, plants, and mankind. Even in the here and now, animalian constellations could be seriously problematic, as for example Fox Erra, who, when visible in the night sky, presided over the plagues of summer.⁴⁴ Most animal demons were mixed beings, part-animal and part-human.⁴⁵ There were, however, exceptions. The dream vision of a Neo-Assyrian prince describes Šulak as “a lion, standing constantly on his hind legs”.⁴⁶ This demon (no relation) haunted the toilet, causing strokes⁴⁷ in elderly persons straining at stool, a surprisingly common phenomenon even today.

20A particularly interesting form of animal charm is found in a series of cylinder seals, quite common in the early periods and particularly beautifully executed under the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad. These show the rising and setting of animalian constellations as a struggle between what is conventionally referred to as a naked hero but is actually one of the Laḫmu gate guardians of the Apsû grappling with reluctant Leos, Tauruses, etc. and even killing them, representing the seasons in which those constellations rose or set.⁴⁸ On a number of examples, as well as on the sounding board of the famous Ur Bull-Headed Lyre, the seasons are represented deliberately out of order so as to form a magic circle of protection for their owners. For example, on the Bull-Headed Lyre, one sees represented a series of animalian constellations struggling not to rise or set, carrying or playing musical instruments, and dancing in four panels. However, in contradistinction to normal calendric order the constellations of Spring (Taurus) are followed by those of Summer (Leo and Fox Erra), but then we have those of Winter (the Panther/Bear and the Horse Star) followed by those of Fall (Scorpio and the Goat Star of Gula)!⁴⁹ Finally, the goat-star constellation, closely associated with the healing goddess Gula, was, in the late periods, appealed to in the seventh month of each year with sacrifice accompanied by a prayer for another misfortune-free year of life.⁵⁰

Magic in medicine

21Animals or, more usually, parts of animals, were used empirically in medicine, although many of what look like animal parts are, in fact, popular names for plants. There being no distinction between medicines that were observed to work because of some physiological action produced and those that worked because the patient could be persuaded that they were going to work, the usage of actual animal parts often looks magical to us, especially the medically ill-informed among us, or even the experts in areas beyond the reach of modern medical analysis. In the category of “looks like magic but would be better described as medicine” is the use of the urine of a stallion to treat impotence.⁵¹ What are they actually using? Testosterone. And this is by no means the only plant, mineral or animal substance whose use can pass muster by modern standards.⁵² Less clear is the use of horse sweat to treat a fever. To my knowledge, nobody has ever seriously studied horse sweat to see what it might contain. It is, however, highly unlikely that the stallion made to sweat for this purpose needed to have been hitched to the left side of a chariot, as prescribed in the recipe.⁵³

22It was also a common practice to supplement medicines, whether plant, animal or mineral substances, with an amulet to be worn by the patient that consisted of another dose of the medicine.⁵⁴ Although they could be used as a handy supply, the idea of the exercise was to put pressure on the medicine to do its job. For example, there is a treatment for fever in which a salve is made by mixing dust from various locations and a medicinal plant with oil and boiling them in a stone vessel. Into this boiling mixture, a hapless live lizard was thrown. To ensure the efficacy of the resulting salve, there was a recitation citing magical analogies directed to the dust as, for example, the dust from sunlight and shade was reminded that: “the shade brings (shade) in proportion to the heat of the sunlight” and the plaster from both doorposts that: “just as one doorpost may never approach the other, so may the sickness never approach the patient”. As for the lizard, another live specimen of the same species went head first into a reed tube that was tied shut with a black cloth and worn as an amulet round the patient’s neck.⁵⁵

23That it was the medicine, however strongly it might need to be persuaded, and not the words or ritual actions themselves that were producing the results in such cases is actually spelled out in an ancient Mesopotamian recitation:

The she-goat is yellow; her kid is yellow; her shepherd is yellow; her chief herdsman is yellow. She eats yellow grass on the yellow ditchbank. She drinks yellow water from the yellow ditch. He threw a stick at her, but it does not turn her back. He threw a clod at her, but it did not raise her head. He threw at her a mixture of thyme and salt, and the bile began to dissolve like mist.⁵⁶

24Medicine could also be accompanied by recitations and rituals involving animals that were purely magical. These were typically transfer-rites of various kinds.⁵⁷ So, a pregnant woman who had serious trouble with miscarriages could transfer the problem away by crawling beneath a pregnant she-ass, feeding her with barley as she went. The animal should have been more suspicious of the handout, since the accompanying prayer was: “May what is within you die so that what is within me may live”.⁵⁸

25Not infrequently the animal or animal figurine used for this purpose was thought of as a substitute for the patient.⁵⁹ Most intriguing are Lamaštu rituals in which the demoness is actually married to animal substitutes, which serve as sort of husbands and children for her. The dog was mercifully represented by a figurine. The piglet, however, got its throat slit and its heart put into the mouth of her figurine.⁶⁰ Nice mother! But then what did you expect of a demoness with a diet of human flesh, blood, and bones?⁶¹

Magic in calendric rites

26The great festivals of ancient Mesopotamia involved what to our eyes is an extraordinary amount of popular participation. Some of these rituals lent themselves to opportunistic use, the piggybacking of magical ritual designed to produce health, good luck and prosperity for private individuals onto a public festival from which the entire community was to profit. Hemerologies recommended an evil-expelling releasing of birds and spitting on fish to coordinate with religious rites performed at the New Year.⁶² As long as everybody was performing the same sort of ritual – and not at the neighbour’s expense – all was well. Particularly suited for opportunistic use were calendric manifestations in which the ghosts of the community’s dead were imagined as paying a brief visit to the living.⁶³ Besides the Mesopotamian version of Halloween, there was a ghost-accompanied arrival from and return to the Netherworld of the shepherd-god Dumuzi whose bed, laid out in the house, provided the locus for offerings of shepherds’ cakes baked in ashes with the wish that Dumuzi should herd off all ills besetting the performer of the ritual like so many sheep.⁶⁴

27We might wish to classify these rituals as expulsion rites. In our polarized world, we tend to think only of “either/or”. In ancient Mesopotamia, by contrast, an omen, a religious rite, or a magical ritual gained power by the number of different ways in which it could be interpreted or the number of different ways in which a given problem could be solved. Magic in the ancient world worked by expulsion, apotropaion, propitiation, and transfer, frequently all at once. We have already encountered a number of examples of this multiplicity. Classic in its use of multiple approaches to the solution of a single problem is the use of scape-animals in a magical ritual attached to a series of rituals designed to counteract the baleful influence of an eclipse. The eclipse in question portended death for the king and disaster for his charges. This bad omen needed liter- ally to be washed away and our ritual formed part of purification rites designed to achieve this purpose. A whole series of captives including condemned human prisoners, a bound sheep, a goose, a duck, a pair of birds and a live fish were released. The convicts were stationed, seven to the right and seven to the left of the king; the king said: “I have remitted their misdeeds” and the prisoners were allowed to go free. Then, in turn, the bound sheep and the rest of the animals, domesticated, captured, or fished out of the river were allowed to escape after having had their “misdeeds” remitted, rather in the spirit of the Presidential “pardon” of a Thanksgiving turkey.⁶⁵

28So far we have simultaneously a transfer rite and, given that the seven and seven make fourteen, the number of the Netherworld, also a substitute ritual complete with compensation to the substitute in the form of freedom for the captives. But there is more.

29The entire ceremony took place in the presence of the sun-god of justice, Šamaš, to whom the following prayer was addressed: “Just as I release this sheep (etc.), so may any evil misdeed, crime, offense or omission which is in my body be released before your godship.” In this we may readily recognize the sentiment of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Magical transfer

30These last uses of animals reflect their role as conduits of communication between humans and spirits of all kinds, from the tiniest demon to the greatest god of the pantheon. Particularly interesting in this regard are transfer rites in which the animal is not the intended recipient of an evil⁶⁶ but simply a transmitter that served to transport it to where it was going – usually the Netherworld – either into a hole in the ground, out into the steppe or down river. But first, the evil was transferred to the animal by having it pass by the ritual or the ritual pass by it, handling it, spitting on it or washing over it.⁶⁷

31You were annoyed by squeaky roof beams? In addition to literally hammering the beams’ mouths shut with cedar pegs, you took powdered bits from all of the roof beams, squeaky or not. A live fish caught from the river got a mouthful of powdered bits, and was subjected to a recitation. Subsequently, the scape-fish was released, otherwise unharmed, back into the river.⁶⁸ Perhaps most poignant is the little frog who was enlisted to hippity-hop back to his cool waters, taking a fever with him when he went. But first he got rubbed against the fever patient who also spat into his mouth before he was taken out to the steppe, fastened by one foot to a thorn-bush and left to die.⁶⁹ To the category of conduit between man and god belong the sacrifices offered in magical rituals to gods summoned to enforce a quasi-contract made between the human and an offending spirit in which the latter agreed to cease and desist in return for a one-time offering. Interestingly, the animal sacrifices employed in magical texts are clearly distinguished from those regularly performed in the cult by having the meat to be offered spit-roasted rather than boiled. The odd offering of roasted meat in the cult reveals the coding which distinguished in a rather sensible fashion between methods of cooking more appropriate to indoor and outdoor settings for the ritual praxis.⁷⁰

Animals in constraint magic

32In addition to their use in healing magic, animals had a special role to play in constraint magic and outright witchcraft. Classic are the animals used in oath-taking ceremonies in which the swearer wished to happen to himself the terrible things that were being done to an animal by way of punishment if he broke his oath:

This spring lamb has not been brought out of its fold for a sacrifice, or a banquet or for acquiring (it) or for a sick person or to slaughter for… It has been brought to conclude the treaty of Aššur-nirari, king of [Assyria] with Matiʾilu. If Matiʾilu [sins] against th[is] sworn treaty then, just as this spring lamb has been brought from his fold and will not return to his fold and [will not see] his fold again, so may Matiʾilu…, alas, [be ousted] from his country, not return to his country, and not [see] his country again.⁷¹

33And so it goes.

34Perhaps the most hair-raising of these self-curses, drawn from the Esarhaddon Succession Treaty wishes that: “just as this ewe has been cut open and the flesh of her young has been placed in her mouth, may (the oath gods) make you eat in your hunger the flesh of your brothers, your sons and your daughters”.⁷² We may imagine the scene as follows: the oath takers are watching and listening as it is graphically explained to them (and to the divine enforcers of the oath) in both deed and word what is to happen should the oath-takers violate their oaths.

Animals in sorcery

35In the category of outright sorcery, it was alleged that evil persons fed figurines of their victims to dogs, pigs, birds and even fish.⁷³ We may believe this since counterwitchcraft magic includes instructions to, well, feed the figurines of alleged sorcerers to dogs. Specifically you were to make two figurines of dough, one of a sorcerer and one of a sorceress, and to fasten them to two separate pieces of bread. The alleged victim was to take one piece in his right hand and the other in his left hand, to recite an appropriate recitation and feed them to a male dog and a bitch.⁷⁴

36The difference between sorcery and counter sorcery is a bit of knife’s edge in Mesopotamia, especially with the quasi-legitimate category of restraint magic, particularly spells designed to bring success in legal cases.⁷⁵ However, there were two basic differences, which the actual examples of counter-magic rituals struggle to maintain. One is that the sorcerer is the aggressor and the counter-sorcerer is merely acting in self-defence. The other is, as careful reading reveals, that the sorcerer always and the counter-sorcerer never specifically marks the intended victim of the magic either with magical material (hair, fingernails, figurine made to his specifications, etc.) or putting the magic someplace where the victim will unwittingly come into contact with it as, for example, burying it under the threshold of his house.

37The counter-sorcerer is usually also non-committal as to the sex of the intended victim. We note that our dog feeder made two figurines, one male and one female and, just for good measure, fed them to dogs of the appropriate sex. The reason for this difference between sorcery and counter-sorcery is that different types of magic (and different divine sponsors for this magic) are involved.⁷⁶ Sorcerers used stupid magic that simply did what it was told and had to be given a full set of directions. The divinities that allegedly sponsored this sort of practice were typically gods of the night and Netherworld, not very bright themselves, and sufficiently hungry for offerings that they were easily persuaded to do nefarious deeds, particularly those involving the death of the victim.

38The counter-sorcerer, by contrast was imagined as taking his case against the alleged sorcerer to the divine court headed by the sun-god of justice, Šamaš. Ancient Mesopotamia was a system of justice, not a system of law, and a false accusation bore the same penalty as the alleged crime. What this meant was that if you named your alleged sorcerer to the magic and it turned out that, unbeknownst to you, it was some other person who hated your guts that was plotting your demise, the magic would turn round and you would wind up suffering the fate you envisaged for the alleged sorcerer. If, however, you were magically wishing harm on “whoever was trying to get you”, then even if nobody was, no harm done. Another way of putting this is that counter-sorcery used justice magic, fully capable of discovering whether there was a crime, if so, who the miscreant was, locating him/her and delivering appropriate punishment.⁷⁷

39There was also, apparently, a do-it-yourself-without-expert-help magic which occasionally appears in the texts, namely the practice of leaving a sorcerous animal package where the victim was sure to find it.⁷⁸ This is readily recognizable as a means of enforcing local customary law without recourse to official courts. Your neighbour ran off with something? You put some nasty bit of witchcraft at his door until he returned what he had “borrowed” at which point you quickly destroyed the magic before it turned around and attacked you.⁷⁹ This is presumably the force of a Mesopotamian recitation which asks the Pleiades to not allow one’s own curse to harm one.⁸⁰

40It does not follow that the victim of this sort of magic had no means of self-defence. The distraught discoverer of an arrabu-rodent with its throat cut at his door was advised to give it a sort of burial complete with anointing with oil, dressing up, wrapping in a shroud of mouse skin with bits of gold, silver, and semiprecious stones inside. The resultant package was quasi-mummified with unguents mixed with honey, milk and wine and given a final linen wrapping before being put in a tomb. Last but not least, the customary funerary offerings, eulogies and other rites were to be performed for seven days.⁸¹ In view of the fact that the sorcery in question was designed to “make (the victim) die before his time”, what has actually happened is that the dead rodent has been given as a substitute for the victim who would otherwise have been the one for whom these rites would have been performed.⁸² In addition, the quasi-mummified animal corpse could serve as a sort of friendly familiar spirit protecting the counter-sorcerer against similar attack for the rest of his life.⁸³

41Simultaneously, it could be taken as making the nasty neighbour the victim of his own magic. Among the counter-magic practices otherwise attested was taking figurines of an alleged but unnamed witch, wrapping them in a white goat skin package and burying them in the steppe with a magic circle round about them accompanied by prayers to Ištar and Dumuzi as well as instructions to Nedu, the gate keeper of the Netherworld, to let them into the Netherworld and keep them there. This was a direct tit for tat for the alleged burial of the victim’s figurines that will have caused his urethritis, and with an identical magical ritual.⁸⁴

Conclusions

42We have in this paper given a brief survey of Mesopotamian magic and the use of animals in it. We have discussed the methods of expulsion, apotropaion, propitiation, and transfer employed to deal with various problems, and their simultaneous use in the most powerful rituals. We have defined the place of magic in religious practices, pest control, and medicine. We have noted the specific role played by animals in magical practices. For many more details on the subject of animals in religion, magic and medicine, the reader is urged to consult the attached bibliography.