Utukku Lemnutu, "Evil Utukku Demons" (Sumerian Udug-hul), is a sixteen-tablet Akkadian exorcistic incantation series directed against a wide range of evil demons, ghosts and other malefactors held responsible for illness and misfortune, recited by the exorcist (ashipu) as part of a wider healing ritual for the afflicted patient. Its origins trace to Sumerian incantations of the third millennium BCE, with the canonical Akkadian series continuing to be copied into late antiquity, making it among the longest continuously transmitted bodies of incantation text from the ancient Near East, distinct in purpose from Maqlu, directed specifically against witchcraft, and Shurpu, a general purification series.
Facts
The Witness
Surviving WitnessA sixteen-tablet canonical series, surviving mainly on cuneiform tablets from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, with Sumerian-language forerunners from the early second millennium BCE. 2 Writing MediumClay tablets in cuneiform, a canonical series of sixteen tablets copied and recopied from the third millennium BCE into late antiquity. 1 FindspotThe library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, with further copies recovered from other Mesopotamian sites; the underlying Sumerian incantations predate that library by roughly two millennia. 1 Purpose and Target
Purpose ClassExorcism of evil demons and ghosts causing illness 1 Power InvokedAsalluhi, identified with Marduk, acting with the wisdom of his father Ea, the legitimating pair in whose name the ashipu expels the demons from the sufferer. 1 Origins
Language of CompositionAkkadian, with Sumerian forerunners 1 Scholarship
Critical EditionMarkham J. Geller, Evil Demons: Canonical Utukku Lemnutu Incantations, 2007. 2 Writing medium (class) Connections
Associated With
Both Mesopotamian exorcistic and purification incantation series, distinguished by purpose: Maqlu is directed specifically against witchcraft.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Both Mesopotamian exorcistic and purification incantation series, distinguished by purpose: Shurpu is a general purification series.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
This source names Sumerians directly: "Utukku Lemnutu, "Evil Utukku Demons" (Sumerian Udug-hul), is a sixteen-tablet Akkadian exorcistic incantation series directed against a wide range of evil demons, ghosts and other malefactors held..."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Related To
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Mesopotamian exorcism; Utukku LemnutuView the Source 2. Evil Demons: Canonical Utukku Lemnutu Incantations
Markham J. Geller, State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, 2007
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