to practical matters of childbirth. Once these incantations have been incorporated
into the medical corpus, the main focus shifts to childbirth, in which the mother is
portrayed as a foundering boat with cargo which cannot be unloaded. The associated
ritual consists mostly of rubbing the woman’s body with a combination of oil and
dust from rain gutters.
Potency incantations are a unique genre of magical texts from Mesopotamia, in
which the incantations and rituals are closely associated with each other. In this case,
the aphrodisiac or even erotic nature of the incantation coordinates with ritual
instructions for the man and woman to rub their respective genitals with oils (Biggs
1967 : 33 , 40 , 42 ) while reciting lurid incantations, comparing the man to a wild stag,
bull, or onager having an erection. The incantations focus on the problem to hand,
rather than on divine interference to any great extent. Other incantations in a related
magical (rather than medical) genre are intended to induce a woman to have intercourse
with a man, through a combination of incantations addressed to certain stars or to
Ishtar and rituals which include making figurines or having the woman suck the juices
of an apple or pomegranate (Biggs 1967 : 70 ff.; see Foster 1993 : II 884 ).
Samana incantations represent another case of a genre with a long history, culmin-
ating in these incantations being incorporated into the medical corpus (Finkel
1998 : 85 – 106 ). Athough Samana may be some form of symptom, it is portrayed in
these incantations as a fierce animal, either dog or lion, coming from the distant
mountains or across the river (i.e. from abroad). Samana incantations seem to argue
against the hierarchy discussed above, but they are also exceptional. The popularity
of Samana incantations in late third-millennium Ur III incantations determined their
‘cosmic’ character in the upper levels of the hierarchy, but by the time they were
incorporated into the late medical corpus, the emphasis was somewhat altered; the
concern appears to be with Samana now as a disease or with symptoms associated
with disease.
Not all incantations are thematically related to medicine or healing, but some
incantations (usually in Akkadian) simply function as prayers inserted into the text,
ostensibly to make the rituals more efficacious. Such prayers may be ‘cosmic’ in theme,
referring back to creation or primordial deities, but otherwise have no specific role
within the ritual. Good examples occur within building rituals and incantations
designed to sanctify the building of a temple or cultic building, during which offerings
are made to various deities. A typical incantation recited with such offerings invokes
Enmesˇarra, the lord of the Netherworld, one of the earliest divinities in the pantheon
(Ambose 2004 : 120 ).
Within medical texts, however, the Sumerian and Akkadian incantations tend to
be relatively short and simple, lacking much of the literary sophistication of the
incantation corpus. Within the series referring to fever, a few incantations occur that
are repetitive in nature and difficult to relate to the theme of the medical texts. One
incantation reads:
The locust, the locust, a red locust^1 has arisen and covered a red cloud, red rain has
arisen and inseminated red earth, the flood water has arisen and filled a red river.
The red farmer has taken up the red shovel and red basket in order to dam up
the red waters. As for the red door and red night-bolt: with each case (i.e. patient)— Incantations within Akkadian medical texts —