The incantation series inscribed in cuneiform SumerogramsasÉN SAG.GIG.GA.MEŠ, Akkadian: muruṣ qaqqadi, “headache” (literally “sick-head”), is an ancient Mesopotamian nine-tablet collection of magical prescriptions[1] against the demon that caused grave disease characterized by a headache. Some of its incantations seem to have become incorporated into the later Assyrian work muššu’u, “rubbing”.[2] It is listed on the ninth line of the KAR44,[3]: 244 the work known as the Exorcists Manual, a compendium of the works of the āšipūtu, craft of exorcism, prefixed by the gloss sa.kik.ke4, a phonetic rendition of the series’ opening incipit, én sag-gig é-kur-ta nam-ta-è.[3]: 253
Prescriptions against headache have a long tradition within Mesopotamian folk remedy. The Kassite-era physician Rabâ-ša-Marduk authored “Eighteen prescriptions for headache”.
Like many of the other canonical collections of incantations and rituals, Sag-gig-ga-meš probably achieved its final form in the first millennium BC where it was copied down until the Hellenistic period.[4] Its first five incipits are known from a fragmentary catalog.[3]: 237
Tablet 8 describes a change in mental status (ṭēmu) that the person becomes detached from his body: "They (the demons) altered his mental state, so that he forgets his own flesh."[5] In the ritual part of the text, a lamb is offered up for immolation as a substitute for the sick man.[6]
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The Exorcists Manual (KAR 44) Museum number: VAT 8275
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† Work not extant | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
