Akkadian Magic Literature

In Akkadian Magic Literature the authors present, for the first time, the complete corpus of Akkadian incantations of the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian periods (ca. 1900-1500 BCE). Each of the 188 different texts in this volume is edited, translated and accompanied by a philological commentary. The entire corpus is catalogued and thematically sorted (incantations that concern specific diseases and medical problems; incantations against dangerous animals; incantations that relate to humans; incantations that relate to supernatural entities; and incantations that relate to inanimate objects). In the Overview, the reader will find extensive discussions regarding the geographical and archaeological setting of the texts, their format and physical properties, and various aspects of ancient magical praxis (the practitioners and the clients, the time and place of the magic act, and the materia magica involved). The manipulative strategies revealed in the incantations and the literary and rhetorical devices used in them are thoroughly studied.