National Museums Scotland: 2 (2023-04-16)

Created by: Wagensonner, Klaus

Sumerian love incantation dating to the Old Babylonian period; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; NMS A.1909.405.2.

Among the literary texts in the collection of the National Museums Scotland is this well-preserved tablet, which dates to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). It has recently been understood as incantation against love pain (see a new edition and discussion in Mark Geller, “Mesopotamian Love Magic,” CRAI 47/1, 129ff.). Sumerian and Akkadian compositions provide good examples of love incantations. Incantations frequently explain a condition and present a problem. The text draws much from Inanna-Dumuzi love songs. Half of the composition describes a girl and how she arouses a man: “She strikes the lad in the chest like (with) a reed” (line 17). Then Asalluhi, having no solution, addresses his father Enki, who willingly gives him the following advice: Butter of a pure cow, milk of a domestic cow, butter of a cow, butter of a white cow - when you pour it in a yellow stone-vessel, when you apply it to the girl's breasts, the girl must not lock him out of the open door, nor must she comfort her crying child. Let (the lad) speak out: “May she run after me!” Incantation spell. The tablet in Edinburgh has a duplicate in the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts (published by Albrecht Goetze, JCS 8 [1954] 146). Since the state of preservation of the Edinburgh text is better, it adds valuable information to the understanding of this composition. CDLI entry: P355876

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus