Lamaštu

Lamaštu was one of the most important Mesopotamian demons, playing a dominant role in the magico-religious and magico-medical beliefs and practices of ancient Mesopotamia for nearly two millennia. Yet, she has never been the subject of a scholarly monograph dedicated to the textual and visual evidence for her, her activities, and the measures that ancient magical specialists took to counter her. This volume also falls short of this description, because it covers only one part of the material: it is an edition of the textual record only, which is, however, collected here as completely as seems possible today. Walter Farber, who has studied these materials for decades, presents a comprehensive collection of all of the known texts, the texts of the primary incantations in a “score” format, and transliteration and translation of a number of ancillary texts. This much-awaited volume will fill the void in the literature on this aspect of the life and thought of ancient Mesopotamian peoples regarding the character of this malevolent creature and the means of warding off the threat that she posed.

“This volume is a significant milestone not only for Assyriologists but for anyone interested in the larger field of comparative religion.”—Michael S. Moore, Review of Biblical Literature

“Walter Farber’s edition of the canonical Lamaštu series is an important philological milestone for the study of the most fascinating demons from Mesopotamia. The book will remain the standard edition of the Lamaštu Series for generations to come. The glossary is particularly welcome as it provides the opportunity to study the world of Lamaštu in depth, and likewise enables thematically based research into the realities within the Series itself. All who are interested in ancient magic and medicine should be grateful to the author.”—Strahil V. Panayotov, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

“It must be stated that a milestone has been reached by Farber, providing a complete overview of all Lamaštu texts, containing expert transliterations, transcriptions, elaborate commentaries, and excellent copies which will serve research for many decades to come.”—Elyze Zomer, Journal of the American Oriental Society

“Farber provides an excellent and masterful edition of the Lamaštu series, showing his long experience with the subject. The edition of these texts is an important milestone and a most desired result that, together with other recent publications on related topics, significantly broadens the number of Mesopotamian incantation textual editions available.”—Lorenzo Verderame, Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Lamaštu, Daughter of Anu: A Sketch

The Lamaštu Texts: Ancient History

Lamaštu Texts in the Third and Second Millennia B.C.

Lamaštu Texts in the First Millennium B.C.

The Lamaštu Texts: Recent History

The Beginnings in the 19th Century: Lamaštu Amulets

The First Texts

From Myhrman to Geers

Franz Köcher: Dissertation (1948) and CAD manuscript (1974)

New Discoveries Since 1977</p<p>Manuscript Sources

Part I: The Canonical Lamaštu Series (“Lam. I–III”)

Part II: Lamaštu Incantations and Rituals That Are Not Part of the Standard Babylonian Series

Part III: Three Unidentified Standard Babylonian Fragments with Possible Connections to the Lamaštu Corpus

Table I. Previous Publications

Table II. List of Museum and Excavation Numbers

Table III. Concordance between “Lam. I–II” and “Lam. III” (Rituals and Incipits)

Table IV: Index to Separate Transliterations, Transcriptions, and Translations of Parallels and Related Texts

The Texts: Edition

Part I: The Canonical Lamaštu Series (“Lam. I–III”)

Part II: Lamaštu Incantations and Rituals That Are Not Part of the Standard Babylonian Series

Part III: Three Unidenti ed Standard Babylonian Fragments with Possible Connections to the Lamaštu Corpus

Glossary to the Lamaštu Texts Bibliography

Indexes

Plates