Two Incantations for the Recapture of Runaway Slaves

Abstract

This paper presents the edition of two Late Babylonian tablets (BM 40482 and BM 71630) that belong to the corpus of the exorcist’s lore (āšipūtu). These texts contain magic rituals for recapturing runaway slaves. Rituals of this kind, so far known only from LKA 135, belong to the type of aggressive magic rituals performed in order to give someone (i. e., the exorcist’s client) power over someone else (here, the runaway slave). Some aspects of the rituals dealt with in these new tablets were already present in LKA 135, but there are some new elements and new incantations with their accompanying magical procedures which supplement our current knowledge on the āšipūtu literature. The incantations and ritual procedures contained in this tablet range widely with regard to their content and style. On the obverse the instructions are very brief and sketchy: they address physical objects and operate at the level of simple sympathetic magic. In contrast, the reverse is more interesting, not only at the level of the ritual procedures, but at the literary level as well. The general impression is that these are different sets of incantations and rituals which were put together for specific practical reasons following the instructions of a ritual practitioner or scribe who is mentioned in the fragmentary colophon. On the obverse of the tablet all the ritual acts gravitate around the door, presented as a personified entity to whom the magical speech is addressed. On the reverse we have a reference to the fashioning of figurines. At the end of the text a final incantation appears, composed by voces magicae, followed by its ritual procedure.