Babylonian Ceremonies, from Ashurbanipal's library Options

Hello all:
Bought 'Babylonian Magic and sorcery' by L. W. King where he translates some incantation tablets written in akkadian. To me the interesting thing is that he mentions that on the back of the tablets are the step by step instructions to perform the ceremony while reciting the incantation. The frustrating thing is that he pretty much ignores them and concentrates on the incantations themselves.

Here are a few paragraph on making an offering (pg 60) to Marduk:

Perform the following: In the night sprinkle a green bough with pure water. Before Marduk the ...... drink offering shalt thou set. Dates and ........ shalt thou heap up. A 'SHA' of oil, a drink offering, water honey and butter shalt thou offer; thou shalt set there and incense burner, corn ...... shalt thou heap up; a 'SHA.NA' of incense shalt thou offer. The ........-drink shalt thou pour out

"The rites in the next line and a half are obscure; at line 7 offerings of flesh are prescribed, three preparations of flesh being specified. In line 8 the command is given to take the oil of certain woods, and the next two lines contain a list of substances that are to be cast into the oil, including gold, fragments of various kinds of woods and plants, and incense. In another tablet certain offerings are specified in honof of Marduk , consisting of one piece of alabaster, one piece of gold, one piece of lapis-lazuli and one seal. In the principal prayer of the tablet reference is made to each one of this four offerings. The ceremonies conclude with an injuction to the officiating priest to hold the hand of the sick man and recite the incantation".

Then L.W. King provides the incantation to Marduk (pretty long) and continues: "On the conclusion of the prayer there follow three short sections of ceremonies, and incanttion of ten lines and a final section of ceremonial directions.... The remainder of the tablet deals with the due disposal of some of the offerings and objects."

WOW, offer 1 part gold, one part alabaster, and one part lapis-lazuli and pour it into the (I assume burning) oil bowl? This guys did not kid around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif).. too bad the ceremonies and disposal of the offerings were not considered important enough for King to have them translated (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Another little gem refers to offerings to Ishtar to be performed on a 'favorable day' (pg 94):

Pure water shalt thou sprinkle. The ..... drink-offering shalt thou present. Dates and ..... shalt thou heap up. A 'SHA' of oil in a drink-offering, water, honey and butter shalt thou offer. An incense burner shalt thou set there. The ....-drink shalt thou pour out

"Lines 24-26 drescribe certain rite to be performed with various woods and oils, and are followed by the injunction to recite the incantation three times and to unloosen "the knotted cord"

another similar tablet making offerings to Ishtar has:

In the night before Ishtar thou shalt sprinkle a green bough with pure water. The .....-drink offering thou shalt present. Seven times the food shalt thou....... A ...... of incense shalt thou offer. Place thou there a garment an a gift"

Typical, its not enough to offer a sacrifice to a girl, you must also buy her some clothes and a gift ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Too bad the tablets are unreadable on untranslateable in places, so I dont know what they do seven time with the food.

Any way, this was very interesting, as I had no idea of detailed rituals being explained along with the incantation themselves, and there are probably a lot more that have not been translated due to lack of interest.

I hope you found this interesting..

1) Have any of you come across other ritual descriptions, offerings, instructions?

Traveller

Interesting indeed.