Markham J. Geller Melothesia in Babylonia Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures Edited by Markus Asper Philip van der Eijk Markham J. Geller Heinrich von Staden Liba Taub Volume 2 Markham J. Geller Melothesia in Babylonia Medicine, Magic, and Astrology in the Ancient Near East DE GRUYTER Picture right side: Les Très Riches Heures (du Duc de Berry) illustrating Melothesia, the system determining which zodiac signs govern the health of specific regions of the human body. Reproduced courtesy of the Preussischer Kulturbesitz (signature: bpk | RMN – Grand Palais | René-Gabriel Ojéda). ISBN 978-1-61451-775-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-61451-693-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-61451-934-8 ISSN 2194-976X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2014 Walter De Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin/Munich Typesetting: Meta Systems Publishing & Printservices GmbH, Wustermark Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgements The present work is the result of four intensive research visits to the Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte over a three-year period, from 2007 to 2009, amounting to 13 months in all, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Topoi Excellence Cluster of the Freie Universität Berlin, and the Max Planck Gesell- schaft. An interdisciplinary study of this kind could hardly have been undertaken without the help and resources of the MPIWG Library. The results were first pub- lished as a Preprint, greatly benefiting from advice on astronomy and astrology from Francesca Rochberg and Helen Jacobus, see Look to the Stars: Babylonian medicine, magic, astrology and melothesia (Max Planck Preprint 401, Berlin, 2010). Since 2010, major sections of the text have been revised, based on an exhaus- tive list of corrections kindly submitted by Henry Stadhouders, Marten Stol, Nils Heeßel, and Irving Finkel. Some additional material has been added, from Galen’s treatise, Ars Medica, and an important commentary on Marduk’s Address to the Demons edited by W. G. Lambert, contributed courtesy of A. R. George. I would like to thank Hermann Hunger for kindly lending me his photograph of the Uruk tablet which is at the centre of this study (SBTU I 43) and to the Deutsches Archäologi- sches Institut for permission to reproduce it. Thanks are also due to Velizar Sadovski for invaluable editorial work. I would like to thank the Preussischer Kul- turbesitz for permission to reproduce a plate from the Duc du Berry’s Très Riches Heures as well as the Walter de Gruyter Verlag for its kind permission to publish the plates from Babylonisch-assyrische Medizin. The copy of STT 300 from The Sult- antepe Tablets appears here with permission of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, along with the collations of S. Panayotov. Berlin, April 2014 Contents Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations x Bibliography xi Introduction: Globalisation of Knowledge 1 I The Uruk ‘taxonomy’ (SBTU I 43) 3 II Uruk Astral Magic (BRM 4 20 and BRM 4 19) 27 III The Neo-Assyrian Precursor: Before the Zodiac 47 IV Ancient Aramaic and Greek Parallels 69 V Astrological Interpretation of SBTU I 43 73 VI Melothesia 77 VII Concluding Hypothesis 91 VIII Appendix: Modern Reflections 95 Indices 97 Abbreviations AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AHW Akkadisches Handwörterbuch AMT R. C. Thompson, Assyrian Medical Texts BAM F. Köcher, Babylonisch-assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen BRM Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary GCCI Goucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions JA Journal Asiatique JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies KAR Keilschrifttexte religiösen Inhalts LBAT Late Babylonian Astronomical Texts LKU Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Uruk MSL Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon OECT Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts PGM Papyri Graecae Magicae (Greek Magical Papyri) SBTU Spätbabylonische Texte aus Uruk STT The Sultantepe Tablets ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie Bibliography Betz 1986 = H. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago). Bezza 1995 = G. Bezza, Arcana Mundi: Antologia del pensiero astrologico antico (Milan). Biggs 1967 = R. Biggs,Šà.zi.ga, Ancient Mesopotamia Potency Incantations (Locust Valley). Bober 1948 = H. 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