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The Twenty-One “Poultices”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

W. G. Lambert
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to publish a third version of the ancient Babylonian myth of the Twenty-one “Poultices”, and to comment on the mythological content of all three, while leaving details of the strictly medical aspects to others. The two hitherto known versions of this myth are both preserved on Late Assyrian tablets from Assur: LKA 146, the whole of which is relevant, and BAM 313, of which only part is of direct concern. The tablet published here for the first time, BM 33999, is of Late Babylonian date, probably from Babylon, and is now in the British Museum, by kind permission of whose Trustees it is available.

“Poultices” (mêlu) were a common form of Babylonian medicine. A number of drugs, usually between two and four, were combined and then applied to a person's body with the aid of a leather strap or pouch. When specified, the neck is always the part of the body involved, and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (sub voce) assumes that this was always the case, but perhaps it would be wise to leave the question open for the present.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 30 , December 1980 , pp. 77 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1980

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References

1 Previous comments on this tablet are given by Borger, R., HKl I 107Google Scholar. Abbreviations in this article not found in this journal's list should be sought in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

2 See the discussion of Muati by the present writer in MIO 12 (1966), 41 ffGoogle Scholar.

3 Published by van Dijk, J. J. A. in UV B 18 (1962) 44Google Scholar. This sage is given the same title as here in the series Bīt Mēseri, see Borger, R., JNES 33 (1974), 192Google Scholar.

4 A case of two different stones being worn on the person to achieve fulfilment of a wish—to be received favourably by the ruler—occurs in KAR 71 rev. 19–26.

5 See especially G. Farber-Flügge, Der Mythos “Inanna und Enki".

6 Borger, R., JNES 33 (1974), 183 ffGoogle Scholar.

7 See the second English translation, by Burstein, S. M., The Babyloniaca of Berossus in Sources and Monographs, Sources from the Ancient Near East I/5 (Malibu, 1978)Google Scholar.