CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE
IN MESOPOTAMIA
Tzvi Abusch
L
et us begin with simple definitions of magic and witchcraft in Mesopotamia. We
classify as magical those rites that address the needs, crises, and desires of the
individual. In contrast to some later western societies, magic in Mesopotamia was
regarded as legitimate and as part of the established religion. Therefore, in a Meso-
potamian context, witchcraft refers not to magical behavior as such, but to inimical
behavior, that is, to the practice of magic for anti-social and destructive purposes
(though, as we shall note later, not all behavior so labeled was, in fact, motivated by
evil intentions).
Over the course of some 2 , 500 years (c. 2600 – 100 BCE), numerous cuneiform texts
written in both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages refer to personal crisis and
individual suffering (e.g., letters, curses, and literary compositions that treat the prob-
lem of theodicy); but, by and large, the most important sources detailing ways to cope
with illness, danger, and personal difficulties are the various types of texts that describe
symptoms, provide etiological or descriptive diagnoses, and prescribe ways to deal
with evil and suffering. These treatments include medical therapies, ritual prescriptions,
and oral rites (prayers and incantations). Among the rituals, we find several long and
complex ceremonies.
The principal agencies in the religio-magical world view were gods, demons, per-
sonal gods, ghosts, witches, evil omens, curses, and sins. Frequently Mesopotamian
traditional texts treated personal distress or illness as the result of the action or
inaction of supernatural powers. In this view, the universe was understood to be
hierarchically structured and to be centered on divine powers. This approach seems,
however, to have emerged from, or to have drawn upon, an earlier approach that
viewed the world holistically.
The changing explanations of suffering and the changing configurations of causal
agents and chains of causation probably reflect different social situations and can be
explained in historical terms. The earlier mechanistic magical universe reflected the
social context of traditional society: the village and pre-urban settlement. A traditional
world view probably continued to remain operative for the mass of rural and urban
dwellers. But alongside this world view and based upon it, a new world view that
reflected the values and interests of the emerging urban elite arose; in this new view,