Potency Ritual (1)

DESCRIPTION
Language:	Akkadian
Medium:	clay tablet
Length:	17 lines of writing
Genre:	ritual text
Approximate Date:	7th century BCE
Place of Discovery:
Dates of Discovery:
Current Location:

TRANSLITERATION Ebeling (1953:102)		TRANSLATION Adapted from Biggs (1967:22-23)
ÉN UG.GA UG.GA ti-ba [ ti-ba]	1.	An incantation: Get aroused! Get aroused! Get an erection! Get an erection!
UG.GA GIM a-a-lì ti-ba GI[M ri-mi ]	2.	Get aroused like a stag! Get an erection like [a wild bull!]
it-ti-ka lit-ba-a ni-esh[ú]	3.	Let a lion get an erection along with you!
it-ti-ka lit-ba-a [. . . .]	4.	Let a [. . .] get an erection along with you!
it-ti-ka lit-ba-a MU[. . . .]	5.	Let a [. . .] get an erection along with you!
p[u-h]ur SA.MEŠ ŠID- ka ni-il-k[a . . .]	6.	All the muscles in your limbs, your semen . . .
[. . .-ka] a ku-us-su-ka la ik-kal-k [a]	7.	[Your . . .] will not hurt you.
[. . .] da ki-ma ze-e-k[a]	8.	[. . .] like your excrement.
uk [. . .] ki-ma shi-na-ti-k[a ]	9.	[. . .] like your urine.
li-ma-as-ra ú-shar-ka mu-ni-ih e [. . .]	10.	Let your penis which calms be [. . .]
GIŠ-ka ku-ut-mi-ni-tu-[ma] li-ku-la pu-ri-di-iá	11.	Let your penis hurt my crotch!
ina qí-bit dKa-ni-shur-ra dIsh-ha-ra be-[l]et ra-me ÉN	12.	According to the command of Kanishurra (and) Ishhara, goddesses of love. Incantantion.
INIM.INIM.MA ŠÀ.ZI.GA	13.	An Incantation for Potency.
DÙ.DÙ.BI NA4.KA.GI.NA.DIB.BA SÚD ina Ì.BUR HI.HI	14.	Its Ritual: You crush magnetic iron ore, mix with pûru-oil,
ÉN 7-shú ina UGU ŠID-nu LI.DUR-su TAG-at	15.	recite the incantation seven times; you apply it to his belly.
KU.KU AN.BAR SÚD ina Ì.BUR HI.HI ÉN 7-shú ana ŠÀ ŠID	16.	You crush iron, mix it in pûru-oil, recite the incantation seven times over (it),
LI.DUR SAL TAG-at NITA u SAL UR.BI [i-nu-uh-hu]	17.	apply (it) to the woman's belly; the man and woman [will find satisfaction] together.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biggs, Robert D. ŠÀ.ZI.GA: Ancient Mesopotamian Potency Incantations. Texts from Cuneiform Sources. Locust Valley, N.Y.: Augustin, 1967. Ebeling, Erich. Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Assur. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1953. Hoffner, Harry A. "Symbols for Masculinity and Femininity: Their Use in Ancient Near Eastern Sympathetic Magic Rituals." Journal of Biblical Literature 85 (1966) 326-34. Levine, Baruch A. "The Descriptive Ritual Texts from Ugarit: Some Formal and Functional Features of the Genre." In The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman, edited by C. L. Myers and M. O'Connor, 467-75. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1983. Levine, Baruch A. "Ugaritic Descriptive Rituals." Journal of Cuneiform Studies 17 (1963) 105-11. Meyer, Marvin, and Paul Mirecki, eds. Ancient Magic and Ritual Power. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 129. Leiden: Brill, 1995. Mikasa, Takahito, ed. Cult and Ritual in the Ancient Near East. Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992. Quaegebeur, Jan, ed. Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 55. Leuven: Peeters, 1993. Robertson, J. J. M. "Divine Freedom and Cultic Manipulation in Israel and Mesopotamia." In Unity and Diversity: Essays in the History, Literature and Religion of the Ancient Near East, edited by H. Goedicke and J. J. M. Roberts, 181-90. Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1975. Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987.

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Last Modified: 10 September 2002