DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57036#0055
42
Bannlösung (nam-erim-bür-ru-da)
matter ever-decaying to earth from which, also according to
Mesopotamian tradition. the first human was formed. In the act
of creation accomplished in the early moming. the mythical era
of the primordial beginning and the chronological horizon of
the present manifestly intermingled. Inasmuch as he fashioned
the already active ban and brought it to life as once done by
the gods.252 the healer powerfully intervened in that erstwhile
age wherein the primordial source of the evil to be combatted
within the therapy had emerged. In this act of creation. the healer
ventured back in time and repeated in a certain sense the bygone
moment in which the ban to be dispelled once arose. By means
of this ‘time travel’, he achieved power over both the past and
that which had occurred.253 254 As its creator. the healer can guide
254
the evil. ‘ command it with the omnipotent divine utterance.
and steer its being within past. present, and future. The aim of
all procedures for dispelling a ban was to render retroactively
harmless the ‘‘image of the ban" and thereby the ban itself. to
inhibit the contamination brought about by the ban crystallising
in misfortune and sickness. and to retum it to the ban itself.
The ban should thus become anathema to the world. Brought
to death.255 buried. and handed over to the underworld. the
"land without retum” 256. his clay ‘flesh’257 should disintegrate
once more to dust. Düring this process. centrally decisive to the
procedures for dispelling a ban. the focus is directed towards the
healer representing the god and the ill to be combatted. whereas
the patient for the sake of whom the treatment was performed
and his guilt alike receive scarce attention. Fixed in wording and
derived from Asalluhi himself. the exorcistic dicenda which a
healer in this context was to direct at the personified ban possess
an imperative character (imprecative exorcism).
Yet other exorcisms are of a petitionary nature (deprecative
exorcism). These recitations are often addressed to the sun
god Samas. the ‘Tord of law and justice”.258 These form the
centrepiece of a further constitutive Strand of action within the
procedures for dispelling a ban which does not focus upon the
calamity and the divine power superior to it. but rather upon the
personified evil and the patient plagued thereby. In a veritable
legal procedure staged within the patient’s house. these latter
two were to confront each other before the sun god. There.
they should conduct a lawsuit which should conclude in the
patient’s favour and the preconditions for a dispelling of a ban.
The recitations of a petitionary character with which the healer
appealed to the sun. the divine judge. in the name of his patient
252 On the notion of the creation of the ban at the primordial beginning. see
Text no. 4-10. 65-68.
253 In Text no. 4-10. 42-43. this grasp into the past is described as an act
accomplished by the saviour Asalluhi: “Asalluhi. the great conjuror of the
gods. / regarded the ban. Then he tumed the ban back (to good)."
254 See. onthis. the commentary onTextno. 1-2.8'and also Text no. 3. 66-71;
Text no. 14-15. 2-4’, and S. M. Maul. BaF 18. 302.1. 28 and ibid.. 424f„
1. 39-42.
255 Therapy instmctions recommend the daggering of the figurine of aban (see
Text no. 46—47. 47-50). See also Text no. 48-51. 66 with the prescription
to strike a ban figurine which should simultaneously serve as the Substitute
for the patient with a hatchet and then to shatter it (cf. the commentary on
Text no. 48-51. 69a).
256 See Text no. 46-47 and also Text no. 1-2. 24”-27”; Text no. 3. 77-78;
Text no. 4-10. 13”—14".
257 From Text no. 48-51. 46. it may be deduced that the clay figurines used
in a therapy could possess a skeleton of wood and reed which would be
coated with clay.
258 Text no. 1-2. 12' and 20"; Text no. 3. 23 and 72; Text no. 4-10. 6" and
passim.
occupy the position of a speech for the defence within the legal
proceedings enacted.259 Therein, it is generally submitted. on
the one hand. that the ban has forfeited its right to the life of
the afflicted individual as it has already been compensated with
ample prior gifts and contributions presented. or by means of
compensatory allowances or a wergild accorded it;260 on the
other hand. the addresses to the sun god are marked by pleas for
the patient to be granted justice and spared further punishment.
Furthermore. subtle signs within the scenic depiction of the trial
leave scarce doubt that it was the role of the personified ban
to be defeated and that of the patient to prevail.261 Thus. this
narrative of a lawsuit only appears at first glance to contradict
that marked by the notion of the forceful expelling of perdition.
In reality. both narrative Strands are artfully interwoven within
the procedures for dispelling a ban.262
In the more exacting procedures for dispelling a ban. the ban
was lent multiple identities by means of the garb and kit afforded
the figurine. the care and attention it gamered. and the approach
taken towards it respectively. Within the complex texture of the
therapeutic happenings. these denote distinct narrative Strands
running in parallel but intertwined at crucial tuming points
such as the rendering innocuous and the disposal of the ban
respectively.
In the majority of procedures for dispelling a ban. the ban’s
image assumed the figure of a bride.263 Over the course of the
therapy’s events. the ban (previously rendered harmless) was
honoured and doted on as a bride and wed in a rite with the
individual upon whom the ban weighed. The robe of the figurine
and that of the patient were tied to each other by means of a
knot, a symbolic act which also legally sealed a marriage in
quotidian life. Thus. the patient was compelled to acknowledge
the judgement of the gods to saddle him with a ban. to face up to
his guilt and illness. and embrace these as forming a fundamental
disorder. These therapeutic forms doubtless contributed to the
bolstering the patient’s powers of self-healing. inasmuch as
they lent him new insights. experiences. and opportunities for
behaviour. Within the staged narrative, the judgement of the
gods to impose a ban upon an individual was loosened akin in
the truest sense to the Gordian Knot. In the severingby the healer
of the knot binding the afflicted individual and the ban in bridal
guise together by their robes. he accomplished a divorce as also
259 A representative example may be found in Text no. 3. 22-48.
260 On the wergild assigned the ban. see Text no. 1-2. 8'. and the appurtenant
commentary with reference to further attestations.
261 Among these number that the healer accusatorily held the figurine of
the ban out before the divine judge. (see. e.g. Text no. 3. 21). but took
his patient by the hand during the recitation of the plea for the defence'
before the sun god (see S. M. Maul. BaF 18. 67) and had him stand on the
substances strewn about beforehand which absorbed the pollution of the
invalid, thereby also removing from him the markings of one under a ban
(see the commentary' on Text no. 16-26. 1 and also Text no. 27-33. 74-75
with the relevant commentary).
262 The narrative of the legal proceedings is entirely lacking within Therapy
Description 3 (Text no. 11).
263 Thus. in Text no. 1-2; in Text no. 3; in Text no. 4-10 and in Text no. 14-15.
In the surviving therapy descriptions. the patient is consistently imagined
as male, although procedures for dispelling a ban were also performed
for women (see S. Parpola. SAA 10. 162-163. Text no. 201). It may be
assumed that. in such cases. the figure of the ban received a male form in
place of a female example. Moreover. in the procedure for dispelling a ban
described in Text no. 11. the ban should likewise be incamated into the
figurine of a man dispatched on a joumey into the underworld. much as in
a procedure for defence against a demon or a ghost. The same holds for
Text no. 48-51.
Bannlösung (nam-erim-bür-ru-da)
matter ever-decaying to earth from which, also according to
Mesopotamian tradition. the first human was formed. In the act
of creation accomplished in the early moming. the mythical era
of the primordial beginning and the chronological horizon of
the present manifestly intermingled. Inasmuch as he fashioned
the already active ban and brought it to life as once done by
the gods.252 the healer powerfully intervened in that erstwhile
age wherein the primordial source of the evil to be combatted
within the therapy had emerged. In this act of creation. the healer
ventured back in time and repeated in a certain sense the bygone
moment in which the ban to be dispelled once arose. By means
of this ‘time travel’, he achieved power over both the past and
that which had occurred.253 254 As its creator. the healer can guide
254
the evil. ‘ command it with the omnipotent divine utterance.
and steer its being within past. present, and future. The aim of
all procedures for dispelling a ban was to render retroactively
harmless the ‘‘image of the ban" and thereby the ban itself. to
inhibit the contamination brought about by the ban crystallising
in misfortune and sickness. and to retum it to the ban itself.
The ban should thus become anathema to the world. Brought
to death.255 buried. and handed over to the underworld. the
"land without retum” 256. his clay ‘flesh’257 should disintegrate
once more to dust. Düring this process. centrally decisive to the
procedures for dispelling a ban. the focus is directed towards the
healer representing the god and the ill to be combatted. whereas
the patient for the sake of whom the treatment was performed
and his guilt alike receive scarce attention. Fixed in wording and
derived from Asalluhi himself. the exorcistic dicenda which a
healer in this context was to direct at the personified ban possess
an imperative character (imprecative exorcism).
Yet other exorcisms are of a petitionary nature (deprecative
exorcism). These recitations are often addressed to the sun
god Samas. the ‘Tord of law and justice”.258 These form the
centrepiece of a further constitutive Strand of action within the
procedures for dispelling a ban which does not focus upon the
calamity and the divine power superior to it. but rather upon the
personified evil and the patient plagued thereby. In a veritable
legal procedure staged within the patient’s house. these latter
two were to confront each other before the sun god. There.
they should conduct a lawsuit which should conclude in the
patient’s favour and the preconditions for a dispelling of a ban.
The recitations of a petitionary character with which the healer
appealed to the sun. the divine judge. in the name of his patient
252 On the notion of the creation of the ban at the primordial beginning. see
Text no. 4-10. 65-68.
253 In Text no. 4-10. 42-43. this grasp into the past is described as an act
accomplished by the saviour Asalluhi: “Asalluhi. the great conjuror of the
gods. / regarded the ban. Then he tumed the ban back (to good)."
254 See. onthis. the commentary onTextno. 1-2.8'and also Text no. 3. 66-71;
Text no. 14-15. 2-4’, and S. M. Maul. BaF 18. 302.1. 28 and ibid.. 424f„
1. 39-42.
255 Therapy instmctions recommend the daggering of the figurine of aban (see
Text no. 46—47. 47-50). See also Text no. 48-51. 66 with the prescription
to strike a ban figurine which should simultaneously serve as the Substitute
for the patient with a hatchet and then to shatter it (cf. the commentary on
Text no. 48-51. 69a).
256 See Text no. 46-47 and also Text no. 1-2. 24”-27”; Text no. 3. 77-78;
Text no. 4-10. 13”—14".
257 From Text no. 48-51. 46. it may be deduced that the clay figurines used
in a therapy could possess a skeleton of wood and reed which would be
coated with clay.
258 Text no. 1-2. 12' and 20"; Text no. 3. 23 and 72; Text no. 4-10. 6" and
passim.
occupy the position of a speech for the defence within the legal
proceedings enacted.259 Therein, it is generally submitted. on
the one hand. that the ban has forfeited its right to the life of
the afflicted individual as it has already been compensated with
ample prior gifts and contributions presented. or by means of
compensatory allowances or a wergild accorded it;260 on the
other hand. the addresses to the sun god are marked by pleas for
the patient to be granted justice and spared further punishment.
Furthermore. subtle signs within the scenic depiction of the trial
leave scarce doubt that it was the role of the personified ban
to be defeated and that of the patient to prevail.261 Thus. this
narrative of a lawsuit only appears at first glance to contradict
that marked by the notion of the forceful expelling of perdition.
In reality. both narrative Strands are artfully interwoven within
the procedures for dispelling a ban.262
In the more exacting procedures for dispelling a ban. the ban
was lent multiple identities by means of the garb and kit afforded
the figurine. the care and attention it gamered. and the approach
taken towards it respectively. Within the complex texture of the
therapeutic happenings. these denote distinct narrative Strands
running in parallel but intertwined at crucial tuming points
such as the rendering innocuous and the disposal of the ban
respectively.
In the majority of procedures for dispelling a ban. the ban’s
image assumed the figure of a bride.263 Over the course of the
therapy’s events. the ban (previously rendered harmless) was
honoured and doted on as a bride and wed in a rite with the
individual upon whom the ban weighed. The robe of the figurine
and that of the patient were tied to each other by means of a
knot, a symbolic act which also legally sealed a marriage in
quotidian life. Thus. the patient was compelled to acknowledge
the judgement of the gods to saddle him with a ban. to face up to
his guilt and illness. and embrace these as forming a fundamental
disorder. These therapeutic forms doubtless contributed to the
bolstering the patient’s powers of self-healing. inasmuch as
they lent him new insights. experiences. and opportunities for
behaviour. Within the staged narrative, the judgement of the
gods to impose a ban upon an individual was loosened akin in
the truest sense to the Gordian Knot. In the severingby the healer
of the knot binding the afflicted individual and the ban in bridal
guise together by their robes. he accomplished a divorce as also
259 A representative example may be found in Text no. 3. 22-48.
260 On the wergild assigned the ban. see Text no. 1-2. 8'. and the appurtenant
commentary with reference to further attestations.
261 Among these number that the healer accusatorily held the figurine of
the ban out before the divine judge. (see. e.g. Text no. 3. 21). but took
his patient by the hand during the recitation of the plea for the defence'
before the sun god (see S. M. Maul. BaF 18. 67) and had him stand on the
substances strewn about beforehand which absorbed the pollution of the
invalid, thereby also removing from him the markings of one under a ban
(see the commentary' on Text no. 16-26. 1 and also Text no. 27-33. 74-75
with the relevant commentary).
262 The narrative of the legal proceedings is entirely lacking within Therapy
Description 3 (Text no. 11).
263 Thus. in Text no. 1-2; in Text no. 3; in Text no. 4-10 and in Text no. 14-15.
In the surviving therapy descriptions. the patient is consistently imagined
as male, although procedures for dispelling a ban were also performed
for women (see S. Parpola. SAA 10. 162-163. Text no. 201). It may be
assumed that. in such cases. the figure of the ban received a male form in
place of a female example. Moreover. in the procedure for dispelling a ban
described in Text no. 11. the ban should likewise be incamated into the
figurine of a man dispatched on a joumey into the underworld. much as in
a procedure for defence against a demon or a ghost. The same holds for
Text no. 48-51.