PAGANS AND GNOSTICSpassionate" occurs on one of the Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls
from Nippur. This epithet evokes the Babylonian ezzu (Ak.) used for
Ishtar as the raging goddess, of war or of love, which became the
Arabic name, al-'Uzza, for the planet Venus (az-Zuhra).19 As al-'Uzza,
"the strong" or "the powerful," Venus was venerated by the Banii
Lakhm at Hira in the sixth century. She was called "sovereign deity,
dwelling in the sky," was served by a kahin, and was the object of
human sacrifice.^20
Several deities of foreign origin were imported mainly because of
their correspondence with native planetary gods. Among the gods
worshiped at Hale or invoked on a Nippur incantation bowl were
Zeus, who was identified with Bel as the planet Jupiter; Kronos as the
planet Saturn; and Hermes, who was identified with Nabu and Tir as
the planet Mercury. Apollo, Protagonos, Okeanos, and perhaps the
Aeons were also named.^21 The Iranian deity Bagdana (Abugdana) also
occurs in the Nippur incantations "with seventy exalted priests." But
he is also described in the incantations as the ruler of demons and
Liliths, and the gods in general are called Bagdani.^22
A tendency to relegate the gods of the old religion to the position
of demons was already evident in the Nippur incantations. In the case
of planetary deities, this was encouraged by the belief in the evil or
harmful aspects of planets according to the astral paganism of late
antiquity. In both the Jewish Aramaic and the Mandaic incantation
bowls from Nippur, the "idols and Ishtars" are treated as demons to
be exorcised.^23 This change is also illustrated by a picture of the head
of a demon in the shape of a ziggurat on an Aramaic magical bowl. 24
However, a genuinely ancient, local demon still survived in the Lilith
who was descended from the Sumerian and Akkadian lilttu. The Lilith
of the incantation bowls was a succubus blamed for nocturnal emis-
sions who, out of jealousy for the husband or father, also preyed upon
19 Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp. 100,213, 217.
20 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 11(1), 133; 11(2), 468, 479. Mundhir IV sacrificed
four hundred captive nuns to her after the fall of Antioch in 640; see F. Buhl, "al-
'Uzza," EI(l), IV, 1069). An Arab called 'Abd al-'Uzzii is mentioned at the time of
the conquest (Tabarl, Ta'rzkh, I, 2070-71). The gods ai-Lit and as-Sabad are also
mentioned in connection with Hira (Horovitz, "'Adi Ibn Zeyd," pp. 37, 39).
21 Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 72; Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp. 100,
196-97.
22 Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp. 100, 170, 196-97.
23 Neusner, History, p. 231.
24 C. Gordon, "Aramaic Magical Bowls in the Istanbul and Baghdad Museums,"
Archiv Orientalni 6 (1934), 320.