298 FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
The Mesopotamian Pandemonium
A Provisional Census
Supernatural agency
The long history of Mesopotamian civilization has produced over
three thousand gods, and a far smaller number of monsters, sages, spirits,
and demons, which together with the protective deities of the individual,
pernatural
agency in Mesopotamian thought. The features distinguishing
the evil species from gods and among each other, and the mythologies in
which they functioned, will be assessed here on the basis of the two types
of evidence available, literary and visual.
The literary tradition starts halfway the third millennium BC, and
extinguishes early in the Christian era together with the cuneiform writabundant
and explicit, but also contradictory and confusing, because new
thoughts expressed in traditional garb can hardly be distinguished from
old thoughts preserved out of antiquarian interests. The visual evidence
starts considerably earlier than the literary, and has the advantage of being
datable, the disadvantage of being inexplicit and therefore hard to
decipher. Mesopotamian art is but sparsely supplied with captions, and
matches between sundry pieces of visual and literary evidence.
Native descriptions of visual types and art works do exist, but are limited
to the extraordinary, and thus of little use for the ordinary. The Standard
Babylonian Göttertypentext1
describes twenty-seven images of gods
and spirits which presumably once lined the walls of a temple in Kassite
Babylon; the Neo-Assyrian Underworld Vision2
reviews the netherworld
and its inhabitants as seen by an Assyrian prince in a dream: Nergal with
) in Nergal’s service. None of the images of
1
F. Köcher, Der babylonische Göttertypentext, in «Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientfor-
2
A. Livingstone, The Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince, in «Sate Archives of
SMSR   
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM 299
and appearance may be realistic.
The pantheon: divine order and its enforcement
A pantheon of over three thousand gods seems too large to consist
it didn’t. The most important agencies are covered by a relatively small
and stable core pantheon of some ten to twenty deities of nature, in the
-
cal
city panthea, or serve the courts of the great gods in specialized functions:
spouse, child, vizier, herald, deputy, messenger, constable, singer,
throne, weapon, ship, or harp. A special place is taken by a small group
creation of the modern cosmos were relegated to the netherworld, where
they sometimes served as gatekeepers.
In art the great gods are anthropomorphic, while the lesser gods may
of time these and other non-anthropomorphic elements such as sun disc,
star, or crescent moon developed into the symbols that replaced the increasingly
distant anthropomorphic gods.
In the daily life of Mesopotamia kinship determined one’s place in society,
and so it did in the supernatural world: the relations between gods,
Fig. 1:
Drawing: F.A.M. Wiggermann.
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
by cosmogony. Mesopotamian cosmogony was standardized only in the
late second millennium creation myth , where Marduk, the
old religious centre Nippur. The earlier version of the myth, the one updated
in
functioned in a yearly wailing ritual for the dead gods of primeval times.
With many variants this list recurs in lexical texts, god-lists, and incantations
from the third millennium onwards. With the help of fragmentary
information culled from various other texts the implied cosmogony can
be summarized as follows: the primeval ocean, Namma, grew an entity
-
space.
Major and minor gods were born and populated the earth, which
d
allû) got fed up with their heavy toil, and rebelled. To
from then on would carry the workload. The creation of man proceeded
by mixing clay with the blood of the executed rebel leader, named Alla
Thus the cosmogony established the power relations between the in-
-
lil’s
decisions are enforced by netherworld spirits or gods in his service:
namtaru
the netherworld; namtaru namtartu),
or in older texts d
legality of namtaru bibbu
feline?
other attendants of death operate in groups, the gallû
The
collective occurs in a bilingual creation myth and in
d
mar al-le-e).
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
potamian politics: a hegemonic ruler takes unpleasant decisions in a distant
centre; local worthies exploit the peasants; and a semi-independent civil
service enforces the decisions that had to keep the hierarchy intact, the ruler
in control, the local worthies comfortable, and the peasants subservient.
On earth, in the houses of man, the semi-independent supernatural
enforcers spelled doom, and, although following orders from a lawful
dreaded enforcers respectively, could take on demonic traits.
With the exception of namtaru, whose form is not described, the NeoAssyrian
Underworld Vision
represented by hybrids; from earlier sources next to nothing is known
about the appearance of such beings4
:
namtaru
of the man to be killed in his left; namtartu
4
Ištaran were associated with poisonous serpentine hybrids, and themselves could be partly
Fig. 2:
the one in the middle, does nothing but raising his hands up to heaven; his headdress, a horned
temple in Nippur no doubt. Since carrying the basket and building houses for the gods was precisely
and uncontestably in the early days of the cosmos, the time before the creation of man. To the left a
building a further deity is mixing something in a through, clay and Alla’s blood for the creation of
man we may assume.
Ladders to Heaven
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
human hands, and the feet of a […];
head and hands, a tiara, the talons of an eagle, and his left foot on a -animal
standing on its hind legs;
human hands and feet;
anzû, four hands and feet of a
[…];
anzû; ,
from elsewhere known as a demon lurking in lavatories, is a lion rearing on his
hind legs;
a bird;
a […]; , his front two feet are those of a bird, his rear one is that of a bull;
, whose names the visionary does not know, one has the head, hands,
and feet of an anzû, in his left hand a […]; the other has the head of a man, a tiara,
in his right hand a mace, in his left his […].
The Göttertypentext describes one netherworld inhabitant, also a
hybrid: amma[kurkur], The
primeval Monsters: brute force in the service of order
gallû
-
scriptions
of art work in temples or palaces, and especially in the creation
myth mat).
Visually the members of the group are marked by hybridity, that is
composition out of human and animal elements; only one,
civilized Mesopotamian by his barbarian nudity and unkempt hair, – a
kind of social hybridity .
gallû)
and melammû
vine
determinative, and rarely admitted into the god-lists. In the art of the
earlier periods the Monsters did not wear the horned crown, the mark of
F.A.M. Wiggermann, Mesopotamian Protective Spirits. The Ritual Texts, Styx & PP,
Mischwesen, in «Reallexikon der Assy-
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
often do. Monsters did not normally receive cultic attention, but there
kusarikku) was presented with a bronze cross by his servant
uridimmu) and
), both supplied with the divine determinative, received
offerings. But even the Monsters that did receive cultic attention
remained minor deities with limited responsibilities. Prior to
evidence on the origin and nature of the Monsters is sporadic; some were
unruly and rebellious, some, like , played a role in cosmogony.
In the distinctive hybridity of the Monsters must be due
tainly
not anthropomorphic, since she has horns, a tail, and udders; her
vizier Mummu has a ram’s head, whose bleating may have given him his
muh-muh”. About the appearance of the other gods of the primeFig.
3: A selection of Monsters, and the Four Winds.
Drawing: F.A.M. Wiggermann.
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
makes the
connection between primeval chaos and hybridity explicit:
was darkness and water and that in this water strange beings with peculiar forms
came to life. For men were born with two wings and some with four wings and
two faces; these had one body and two heads, and they were both masculine and
feminine, and they had two sets of sexual organs, male and female. Other men
were also born, some with the legs and horns of goats, and some with the feet
of horses and the foreparts of men. These were hippo-centaurs in form. Bulls
from their hind quarters, and dog-headed horses and men and other beings with
in appearance from one another.
of the creation myth, where Marduk set up statues of Tiamat’s defeated
representations of the defeated Monsters were to be seen at Marduk’s
temple in Babylon.
In as far as Tiamat’s army is concerned Berossos’s description is very
imprecise, as if he never really looked at the images in question, and on
one point, their hybrid sexuality, it is mistaken. There were asexual primeval
beings, as we will see, but not the Monsters. Monsters may form
male-female pairs, albeit unproductive ones, and in art they are usually
kulullû nium
seals. In this respect the Monsters differ from the utukku-demons,
which have no recognizable components at all, and were, at least initially,
unrepresentable and unrepresented. Another difference between Monsters
on the one hand, and demons or ghosts on the other, is that Monsters
were never viewed as agents of suffering or disease.
feated
by the gods of order, stepped into their service to become guardians
against the demons that threatened the state, the king, and the people.
In fact images of Monsters in apotropaic functions have been found regu-
The
translations of Berossos follow S.M. Burstein, The Babyloniaca of Berossus -
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
ly on amulets to be worn on the body, and in great quantities on cylinder
seals of all periods.
Through time the group of Monsters adapted to current mythologies,
visually as apotropaic helper spirits. The Monsters as members of a coherent
group of helper-spirits must be distinguished from the hybrids, a
much larger and less permanent group, which excluded the major gods,
and included some lesser deities, the Sages, most or all netherworld of-
.
A group of spirits that formally and functionally can be associated
with the Monsters is that of the Four Winds8
; they are supernatural hybrids,
and, although wearing the horned crown sometimes, they are not
of disease; and, like the Monsters, they could act as protective spirits in
the service of the gods. Of their origin, primeval or otherwise, nothing
whom more below, is at once a demon and an apotropaic hybrid.
intentions:
perhaps originally identical with
alû/lû
a demon at the gate of the netherworld; –
is addressed
as ; –
manifest in stormy weather; –
lil- s are airy, powerless, and
may transmit
messages from gods;
The primeval Sages: pristine magic against disorder
In their effort against suffering and disease the primeval Monsters
and the Winds are supported by the Seven Sages. From the Late Bronze
Age onwards, when their mythology was restructured, there is a wealth
8
F.A.M. Wiggermann, The Four Winds and the Origins of Pazuzu
Das geistige Erfassen der Welt im alten Orient
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
of material on these beings, both visual and textual, but here Berossos’
9
gave to the men the knowledge of letters and sciences and crafts of all types. It
also taught them how to found cities, establish temples, introduce laws and measure
land. It also revealed to them seeds and the gathering of fruits, and in general
it gave men everything which is connected with the civilized life. From the time
detail the things which had been spoken summarily by Oannes.
Like the Monsters and the Four Winds the Sages were supernatural
-
9
Berossos ascribed to this Oannes, who is identical with the primeval Sage
written logographically, the ascription of the cosmogonic
becomes an eyewitness report, transmitted by the Sage who wrote it and his successors to the
present of the Babylonian and Assyrian scholars.
Fig. 4: Kassite amulet seal with a Sage holding a bucket with holy water, and a
Evil will be eradicated
Dragons, Monsters, and Fabulous Beasts, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
), but posterior to the creation of
man, and thus past the point where disorder became order, unruliness
obeisance, and cosmogony actual history and geography .
Like the Monsters, the Sages opposed adversity and disease, but unlike
the Monsters they did not do so with brute force, but with the pristine
cleansing rituals they brought with them from the depths of the primeval
stream11
. As the ultimate source of knowledge and scholarship they be),
who in actual reality was the one that cleansed the victim and
exorcized the demons.
the monsters, which were their allies, the primeval Sages never acted as
agents of suffering or disease.
The primeval pandemonium: cosmic outcasts, total otherness, irredeemable
evil
Mesopotamian demonology is less varied than Mesopotamian theoloscholars
did not collect, organize, and explain their demonic material in
demon-lists12
, like they did their theological material in god-lists. A run
through the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
-
utukku
ekkemu)14
.
Erythrean
11
12
The remarkable absence of demon-lists may be more than coincidence, cf. Utukku
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, The Oriental Institute, Chi-
14
CAD; lemmata and translations are adopted from the CAD with no or only minor alterations;
found in the CAD’s lexical sections. With the bilingual incantations and lexica, and with the
unilingual Akkadian medical, magical, and literary texts, the CAD covers all important sources
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 307 13/12/2011 15:51:14
FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
A relatively well preserved bilingual magical series of late third millennium
origin is our earliest and most systematic source. The series collects
exorcisms and cleansing rituals against a number of demonic powers,
which are summarized in the title of the work as
. The text, though progressively antiquated,
remained in use until the end of the cuneiform tradition, keeping its place
ing
more advanced views on demonology.
The utukku-demons stem from the early, embryonic cosmos. Their an-
)
-
allû
melammû
Like the primeval Monsters the demons did not have cults, but unlike
the latter, who found employ in the service of the gods, they became cos-
)
on a civilization they could not be part of. The demons, not understandhas
been scattered for them, nor any divine offering has been made for
the
food and drink offered to ghosts, and then leave.
As to appearance the utukku-demons were beyond monstrosity. The
text explains that they were neither male nor female, had no wives or
children; that they were incorporeal non-beings, without mouth, limbs,
face, hearing, or vision; that they were concealed, could not be seen even
they were not counted in the universal census.
as far as they did not have bilingual versions. It is useful and possible to make a distinction
but at the moment cannot be realized.
, The Neo-Assyrian
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
The demons, then, partook in the not-yet being of the not-yet, embryonic
cosmos , and as incorporeal, featureless, placeless, and in general
be represented in any form. Thus it is no coincidence that utukku’s did
not have cults, since without representation by a statue in a temple there
was a member of the embryonic not-yet cosmos, however, but because
the laws of the universe did not allow the gods of the underworld and the
gods of upper-world to leave their respective realms.
Later demonology is less precise in its distinction between primeval
utukku’s as unrepresentable not-yet beings, and primeval helper spirits
Underworld Vision, for instance,
ilu Evil Utukku as a hybrid with a lion’s head,
and the hands and feet of an anzû
demons and netherworld servants as hybrids, and thus as formally indistinct
from the exclusive group of Monster helper-spirits. In the Standard
Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic ing
of the utukku
a hybrid of the sort described in the Underworld Vision, where Death has
), human hands, and the feet of a
gallû’s, too,
must have resembled human beings, since the word is regularly used to
characterize evil people.
Contrary to the apotropaic Monsters, demons of whatever description
are, with one exception, not found represented in Mesopotamian art at any
time. First millennium exorcistic texts occasionally prescribe the manu-
,
utukku, ,
mimma lemnu), representations of
which could be male or female, have wings, and hips on which its name
could be written; the Underworld Vision describes the same demon as
-
In
Mesopotamian cosmogony the state of the cosmos before creation is often described
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
tion were made solely to be destroyed in the ensuing exorcism. The
in rituals against witchcraft: made of wax or clay they were annihilated
by burning, or by dissolution in water. The one exceptional evil whose
image has been preserved is the baby-snatching demoness Lamaštu, but
only two-dimensionally on terracotta, stone, or metal amulets, not three-
18
.
The utukku class includes among other:
perhaps originally identical with
alû/lû
are
the subject of a separate series of bilingual exorcisms and cleansing rituals;
– is a minor functionary,
who under orders of the cosmic authorities promotes the cause of justice,
and enforces decisions; –
alad or udug) is the male counterpart of the lamassu protective
spirit; protects persons, houses, temples, palaces, cities; – utukku
texts and the lexical lists is translated into Akkadian as utukku or sometimes
utukku
; occurs in the same function) operates together with a female
lamassu) as an aspect of the soul, and as a supernatural proor
); when viewed as
-
utukku,
Demonized diseases proceeding mechanically
break through the ground like weeds, or blow into the body, and seize,
bind, burn, or consume the victim. They could be demonized, or viewed
as operating under divine supervision, but in essence remained misplaced
) are burnt in Maqlû I
18
,
British Museum Press,
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
pieces of nature proceeding mechanically, while their treatment was the
asû ):
nu
–
hybrid -
lar
to, or identical with lamaštu; –
?); –
-
ummu
Wandering souls craving attention from the living, and causing disease
in the process
) of people that are properly buried receive of;
basically water) from their living family members, and
do not cause harm; the ghosts of unburied people search for food and
drink among of the living, and cause unease or disease trying to get their
rines
representing them with the food and drink they crave, and with a
representing ghosts have not been found19
, and were probably annihilated
,
, ) could raise ghosts from the netherworld and have them
pronounce on the fate of the living.
become lil-spirits,
their needs with the living, and in the process cause suffering and disease;
the female ones are particularly aggressive.
The group of -spirits consists of: ,
19
Statues of late third millennium kings or en-priestesses could remain in the temple after
lamassu
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
-
“lil
lil
over whom Pazuzu exerts power as king. The remarkable and unexindependent
from the king’s equally remarkable and unexplained serpentine
penis.
Wild animals and dragon-snakes: representatives of the disobedient
-
-
mimma
lemnu cally
the apotropaic Monsters protected a house against
house to house and killing everything in their way.
various bestial opponents are common on cylinder seals of all periods,
undoubtedly because the implied victory of the agents of order over the
agents of disorder helped the bearer to avoid or endure adversity and disease.
From halfway the second millennium onwards the seals could be
supplied with prayers or incantations enhancing their amuletic value. A
Fig. 5:
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
Marduk, Nabû, Ninurta, or Šamaš, while the image shows Monsters,
no doubt by the visually absent high god of the inscription. Often the inEvil
will be eradicated
The
opponents in the combat scenes on the seals are lions, bulls, be-
triches,
– the wild, or rather disobedient animals that embodied the wild,
or rather disobedient supernatural aggressors combatted by the helper
ugallu Monsters raising their weapons against invisible supernatural eneFig.
6: First millennium amulet against an unnamed evil in the form of a dragonsnake
rearing its deadly head from underneath the victim’s bed.
Drawing: F.A.M. Wiggermann, after A. Becker, Uruk. Kleinfunde I. Stein, von
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 313 13/12/2011 15:51:16
FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
,
combats an aggressive dragon-snake rearing its head from underneath the
bed. The text on the reverse of the amulet is broken, but undoubtedly feasuch
a threat as «that which transgressed the privacy of my bed, made me
shrink for fear, and gave me frightening dreams». The dragon-snake then
represents this nameless evil, which shares its deadly dragon-head with
the demon Death of the Underworld Vision. On contemporary seals the
dragon-snake embodies a mythological version of the same evil, combatted
by Ninurta, the ancient warrior god.
The visualization of generic evil by wild animals, snakes, and dragons
21
, but not explicit in the Mesoserpent
you will trample under foot», and one from the New Testament
pions,
and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you».
Numina loci manifest in animals; demonized dangerous and noxious ani-
mals
The numina loci of deserted places could be manifest in the animals
), for instance,
Some other numina loci
u
en(n)ungallu
; – a quasi-demonic evil troglodyte, who, depu-
–
– d
guards the gates of temples; –(d) ?
Another type of exorcist, the kalû gamlu magic
wand), is shown in the upper register of a Neo-Assyrian seal amulet published in O.W. MuLadders
to Heaven: Art Treasures from the Lands of the Bible, McClelland and
21
D. Frankfurter, The Binding of Antelopes: A Coptic Frieze and its Egyptian Religious
Context
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
asakku
– d
Ulaya
To seize (i. e. paralyze) the locust-tooth 22
.
relatively large number of early incantations. Some further demonic animals,
large and small, are:
) of the netherworld; –
demon and a protective spirit; –
owl?
; –
kilili; –
incantation is poetical
enforcers of divine rule, various other time periods may be represented
by good or evil spirits :
); –
kuttumtu, pussumtu Sîn;
–
depending on divine decisions, a day-spirit can be represented as an instrument
-
22
The Dogs of Ninkilim, Part Two: Babylonian Rituals to
Counter Field Pests
resembles that of Pazuzu to the lil-spirits.
F.A.M. Wiggermann, nography
Die Welt der Götterbilder, Walter de
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
supernatural intruders; the element in the names of the propituous seven
sages denotes the well-being, health, and prosperity which marked their time on
ugallu
Certain aspects of human-human or human-divine interaction are represented
by anthropomorphic deities, hybrids, animals, or objects. PerMesopotamian
iconography is to be taken at face value.
vizier of Šamaš respectively, and probably anthropomorphic;
and u pomorphic
as well;
the Göttertypentext as two similar hybrids locked in perpetual battle; anantu
Göttertypentext as a winged naked woman
with theriomorphic traits, winged probably because the emotion moves towards
the subject from an outside source;
u
lamassu’s) with this function.
The two best known Mesopotamian demons, Lamaštu and Pazuzu,
are also the two most aberrant ones: contrary to all other evils they have
stable and explicit iconographies24
. This difference between Pazuzu and
Lamaštu on the one hand, and the remainder of the pandemonium on the
other, requires an explanation.
lil-deLamaštu,
apparently in some respect – frustrated motherhood? – an un-
24
Pazuzu Pazuzu, in «Re-
,
in M. Stol, Birth in Babylonia and in the Bible
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
lil-demon, too . First millennium ritual texts prescribe the manufacture
of Pazuzu heads, not to be destroyed during an exorcism like the
representations of other demons, but to be worn on the body, or hung in
the house. Representations of Pazuzu, just the heads or complete bodies,
could be made of terracotta, stone or metal, and thus emphatically were
not meant to be destroyed, but on the contrary, to remain in use for an
extended period of time. Pazuzu then, though a king of the demons, functioned
not like a demon to be exorcized, but like an apotropaic Monster
guarding a house or a person against aggressive lil-demons.
Fig. 7: First millennium amulet with apotropaic Monsters, Sages, Lamaštu, and Pazuzu.
Representation of a permanent Lamaštu exorcism, with images of the demoness herself, of
the gifts she receives, and of a donkey, a ship, and provisions for her journey back to the
netherworld. In the upper register the symbols of the gods are visible, which passively supervise
Pazuzu appears, who’s threatening gesture ensures her obedience. The bedroom of the victim
in the middle of the amulet is protected by two primeval ugallu
apotropaic god), while two primeval Sages, the patrons of the human exorcist, are performing a
cleansing ritual on the victim in his bed.
Drawing F.A.M. Wiggermann, cf. Wiggermann, , cit., Fig.
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FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
Since the protection afforded by king Pazuzu was not punctual but
durative, the threat posed by Lamaštu, his most dangerous subject, must
have been durative too, and indeed it was. Lamaštu attacks unborn babies
during pregnancy, and young children up to a certain age, and thus can be
active against the same human victim for an extended period of time. The
temporal extension of Lamaštu’s evil activities at once supplies a ground
for the existence of her iconography. The Lamaštu or drawings,
manufactured during the exorcism, concerned an acute threat of the demoness,
and were meant to be destroyed; the representations of Lamaštu
on terracotta, stone or metal amulets, on the other hand, which are the
source of her iconography, concerned the chronic threat of repeated future
attacks, and were meant to be permanently displayed. In other words,
the reason why Lamaštu and Pazuzu have iconographies is the temporal
extension of the former’s threat, and consequently of the need for the latter’s
protection.
Lamaštu and Pazuzu are exceptional in other respects, too. The originally
divine baby-snatching demoness Lamaštu, daughter of Anu, is an
outcast and a hybrid not by virtue of her origin in the pre-normal early
utukku’s, but by virtue of her
evil and rebellious plan to have mankind for dinner, on account of which
utukkat utukku mythology
of Lamaštu makes two points of later Mesopotamian demonology
explicit: that hybridity, congenial or acquired, visually distinguishgods
do not hatch destructive plans against mankind, while demons do.
in Mesopotamian magic, which did not exist before his introduction into
the pandemonium from a foreign, presumably Aramean, source. In traditional
Mesopotamian magic the incantations against the demons originated
with the gods of white magic, the protagonists of cosmic order,
while in the Pazuzu rituals they originate with Pazuzu himself , the king
of the evil lil-demons, who is bound by honor to keep his minions in
check. With this new arrangement Mesopotamian magic relegated the alLamaštu
is much older than Pazuzu, but the absence of a corpus of bilingual incantations
shows that theAkkadian exorcisms did not have a continuous history from the third millennium
onwards. The original Sumerian d
and much less individualized than her Akkadian counterpart. Possibly the extant Sumerian
concept of the baby-snatching demoness.
In his address to the demon in the incantation atta dannu
phrases that in traditional magic were spoken by the exorcist as emissary or embodiment of the
gods of white magic.
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 318 13/12/2011 15:51:17
THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
ready distant heavenly gods to a passive role in the background, putting
its trust in a dubious but more earthly and more accessible demonic ally.
but more traditional Lamaštu ritual texts, where the neophyte Pazuzu is
The Sumerian names of a number of linguistically unrelated Akkadian
demons or spirits reveal the earlier existence of a class of male and
female demonic dime dime
(d)
dìm(-me) /
dime d
dìm(-me)-a dime
a demon of disease; – dìm(-me)-a-ra-li dime-demon of
d
dìm(-me)-kù
dime
spirit; – d
6
dime
d
?
dime d
dìm(-me)tab
dime d
DÌM.
NUN.ME, an Anatolian mother goddess with demonic traits; – d
dìme(-
me)
:pi-kù dime-demon of pure understanding?
erworld
god.
/
should be valid for the whole group of ?
tinguished
from simple
-
dimegroup,
or what property distinguishes the dime-group from other groups
of demons such as that of the lil-spirits, with which the dime-group has
, ).
Provisional list of Sumerian “equivalents” of Akkadian spirit and demon
names
a-lá see alû; – a-rá (d)
utukku; – see asakku; – (d)
ab-ba-šú-šú kilili;
– d
alad see ; – d
álad see ; – d
álad-edin see (d)
; – d
allala
-a-meš d
allû; – ama-è-a
; – ama-lul(-la)
see ; – ama-lul(-la) muttiltu; – amauru
; – amalu
; – an-ta-šub-ba
(d)
miqtu; – aš-ru see ; – arrat
lemutti; – ba-an-za pessû; –
; – di-bi see ; – see ; – (d)
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 319 13/12/2011 15:51:18
FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
dìm(-me) ; – *dìm(-me)-a-ra-li ;
– d
dìm-kù
; – d
dìm(-me)-a ;
– d
6
; – d
;
– d
dìm(-me):nun see dime-demons; – d
dìm(-me):pi:kù
see dime-demons; – d
dìm-tab
; – iltu, ilu; –
dingirgubbû; – 4
-ra dingirkurû;
– ; – 7
-ga
dingiruggû; – (d)
dù-dù see ; – dugud-da
(d)
miqtu; – é-lá-a ; –
pessû; – d
6
-du-du
d
; – anantu;
– 5
-lá gallû; – gidim , ;
– gig-ti-la pessû, ; – gud
; – gud-an-na alû; –
; –
(d)
; – ; – d
íd ; – igi-
(d)
; – im ; –
; – inim-kúr-du11
-du11
;
– d
mal(i)katu; – izi d
ummu; – izi-šub-ba
(d)
miqtu; – ;
– ka-im-ma ; – ka-muš-ì-kú-e ;
– d
ka-ta-è
see kattillu; – d
KAL see ; – kar-mud-da see (d)
idiptu; – d
ki-du-du
d
kidudu; – ki-sikil-líllá(-en-na)
; – ki-sikil-udda-kar-ra
; – ki-ti-la see
lamassu; – muttilu; – kum
d
ummu; – see lamassu; – li-bi-ir gallû;
– lil lillu; – líl(-lá) ; – líl-lá-enna
see lilû; – líl-ud-tar-en-na see ; – líl-líl-ús-sa lows
the lil ; – d
lilx
lillu; – d d
; – lú-líl-lá
see lilû; – d
lugal-amaš-pa-è-a see (d)
bennu; – d
see
(d)
; – d
lugal-me see (d)
bennu; – d
(lugal)-nam-en-na see (d)
bennu; –
(d)
lugal-ùr-ra (d)
; – mar-gal
; – maškim (d)
utukku; – (d)
maškim-
6
; – me ; – munus-líl-lá
; – nam-érim ; – (d)
nam-tar
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 320 13/12/2011 15:51:18
THE MESOPOTAMIAN PANDEMONIUM
; – nam-ug5
; – nar[mud]-a
see (d)
idiptu; – d (d)
kittu; – d
-
(d)
; – d (d)
kittu; – nìgin
; – d
nin-ninna ?
see kilili; – d
see (d)
bibbu; – d
nin-tu/tùr see ;
– nir-mu-da see (d)
idiptu; – num-nim ; – d
nunùr-dù-dù
11
-du11
) see ; –
(d)
; –d
kattillu; – d (d)
bibbu, nimru; – d
; – (d)
; – sa-adnum
; – see
; – sa-ma-ná ; –
; – see ; – ; –
;
– d
kattillu; –
see (d)
; – ; –
(d)
; – si-si-ig ; – sìg-sìg-ga
; – sumug ; – d
šà-tùr
; – šár-ra-ab-du/dù
; – d
še-en-tu see ; – šed7
-dè ; – šir-en-na see
lilû; – d
šul-pa-è-ta-ri-a d
; – téš ;
– (d)
; – (d)
ud
(d)
; – d
ud-ug (d)
;
– d
ud-zal (d)
; – (d)
udu-idim (d)
bibbu;
– udug (d)
, ; – (d)
ug
(d)
; – d
; – ug5
(-ga) ; – ul see alû; – ur-me(me)
see ; – ùlulu
see alû; – úš ;
– x-šub-ba see ; – d
za-gàr see d
; – d
zag-gar
see d
.
ABSTRACT
molto meno. Un rapido spoglio delle voci del Chicago Assyrian Dictiona-
erano
invisibili, altri orribilmente composti da parti umane e animali;
vano
due gruppi di spiriti ibridi ausiliari, i Saggi e i Mostri, che giocavano
un importante ruolo nella magia apotropaica del primo millennio.
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 321 13/12/2011 15:51:18
FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN
The pantheon of Ancient Mesopotamia is well known, its pandemonium
much less. A run through the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary revealed
the names of some 119 demons, who differed among themselves in various
ways: some were evil by nature, others feared only because of the funothers
dreadful composites of human and animal parts; some had iconographies,
others had not. The evil demons were matched by two groups of
hybrid helper spirits, the Sages and the Monsters, who played an impor-
4. Wiggermann 298-322.indd 322 13/12/2011 15:51:18