Semitic magic, its origins and development / by R. Campbell Thompson.

  • Reginald Campbell Thompson
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Semitic magic, its origins and development / by R. Campbell Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    280/362 (page 208)
    The next cuneiform ‘ atonement ’ is one of great interest, as it goes into details much more fully— “Marduk [hath seen; ‘What I’; ‘Go, my son/ (Marduk)].1 [Take] a sucking-pig [and] . . . [At] the head of the sick man [put it(?) and] Take out its heart and Above the heart of the sick man [put it], [Sprinkle] its blood on the sides of the bed [and] Divide the pig over his limbs and Spread it on the sick man ; then Cleanse thou that man with pure water from the Deep And wash him clean and Bring near him a censer (and) a torch ; Twice seven loaves cooked in the ashes against the shut door place, and Give the pig in his stead and Let the flesh be as his flesh, And the blood as his blood, And let him hold it; Let the heart be as his heart (Which thou hast placed upon his heart) And let him hold it; [That the] . . . may be in his stead . . . That the pig may be a substitute for him . . . That the evil Spirit, the evil Demon may stand aside, That a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian be present.”2 The most remarkable parallel to this spell is contained in the New Testament story of the Gadarene swine.5 The devils which possess the two men beseech Jesus Christ, if He cast them out, to send them into the herd of swine which is feeding close at hand. When the devils leave \ On these abbreviations see Introduction. 2 Devils, ii, Tablet ‘ N,’ col. ii, 1. 41 ff. 3 Wellhausen points out (Reste, 148) that the word ‘herd/ is used both of swine and demons.