Sag-gig-ga-meš

The incantation series inscribed in cuneiform Sumerograms as ÉN SAG.GIG.GA.MEŠ, Akkadian: muruṣ qaqqadi, “headache” (literally “sick-head”), is an ancient Mesopotamian nine-tablet collection of magical prescriptions^[1] against the demon that caused grave disease characterized by a headache. Some of its incantations seem to have become incorporated into the later Assyrian work muššu’u, “rubbing”.^[2] It is listed on the ninth line of the KAR44,^[3]:244 the work known as the Exorcists Manual, a compendium of the works of the āšipūtu, craft of exorcism, prefixed by the gloss sa.kik.ke₄, a phonetic rendition of the series’ opening incipit, én sag-gig é-kur-ta nam-ta-è.^[3]:253

The text

Prescriptions against headache have a long tradition within Mesopotamian folk remedy. The Kassite-era physician Rabâ-ša-Marduk authored “Eighteen prescriptions for headache”.

Like many of the other canonical collections of incantations and rituals, Sag-gig-ga-meš probably achieved its final form in the first millennium BC where it was copied down until the Hellenistic period.^[4] Its first five incipits are known from a fragmentary catalog.^[3]:237

Tablet 8 describes a change in mental status (ṭēmu) that the person becomes detached from his body: "They (the demons) altered his mental state, so that he forgets his own flesh."^[5] In the ritual part of the text, a lamb is offered up for immolation as a substitute for the sick man.^[6]

Primary publications

• R. Campbell Thompson (1903). Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c. in the British Museum, Part XVII (CT 17). British Museum. pp. 4–8, 25–26. line art.
• R. Campbell Thompson (1904). The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, Vol. 2. Luzac and Co. pp. 44–97. transliteration and translation
• Adam Falkenstein (1931). Die Haupttypen Der Sumerischen Beschwörung: Literarisch Untersucht. Zentralantiquariat der DDR. pp. 13f.
• Deirdre Linton (1970). The series Sag.gig.ga.meš and related incantations. University of Birmingham Dissertation.
• H. Hunger (1975). "Zur Ordnung der diagnostischen Omenserie". ZA (65): 63–68.

References

1. D. O. Edzard (ed.). "Literatur". Reallexikon Der Assyriologie Und Vorderasiatischen Archaologie: Libanukasabas - Medizin (Vol 7). Walter De Gruyter. p. 3.
2. Barbara Böck (2007). Das Handbuch Muššu’u “Einreinbung". CSIC. p. 71.
3. M J Geller (2000). "Incipits and Rubrics". Wisdom, Gods and literature. Eisenbrauns. pp. 237–258.
4. T Boiy (2004). Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 136). Peeters Publishers. p. 26.
5. Ulrike Steinert (2012). Aspekte Des Menschseins Im Alten Mesopotamien: Eine Studie Zu Person Und Identitet im 2. und 1. Jt. v. Chr. Brill Academic Pub. p. 255.
6. E. Lipinski (1987). Cartago, Acta Colloquii Bruxellensis 1986. Peeters Publishers. p. 158.