The dangerin the matter lies in the fact that in today'sworld astronomy
and astrologyare separatedisciplineswith entirely different connotations
and value attachments.One is progressivescience;the other is primitive
superstition.Speakingof Mesopotamianastrology and astronomywe
project, unwantinglymaybe,this notion of two separatedisciplinesto the
pastand createa problem of definition: what exactly were Mesopotamian
asfology and astronomy,and what was their relationshipto eachother?
*
This paper is a polished version of the more or less informal talk I delivered in
Graz. It would never have been publishedwithout the perseveranceof Harmes
D. Galter and Bemhard Scholz, who not only insisted that I should panicipate in
ihe Symposiumbut also recordedmy talk and provided me with a transcriptof
it. I am much indebtedto both of them for their hospitality and efforts. I also
iemember fondly and with gratitude the hospitality of Irmtraut Seybold. The
:bbreviationsare thoseof the ChicagoAssyrianDctionary.
48
This split has one particular danger in it. It tends to divide astrological
and astronomicaltexts into two separatecategories,and inferencesdrawn
about thesetwo groupstend to be strongly biaseddependingon the texts
that happen to be assignedor assignableto them. An overwhelming
majority of the texts traditionally assigned to the category of
,,Mesopotamianastrology" are collectionsof omens,and for this reason
Mesopotamian astrology is often referred to as ,,omen astrology" or,
putting an emphasison the omen protases,,,observationalastrology".It is
of course realised that there are other types of astrological texts as well,
but the fact is that Mesopotamianastrology still is - mistakenly, in my
opinion - rather strongly contrastedwith later (Hellenistic, medieval,
Islamic) astrologicalsystems,which are viewed as further developments
or transformations of the former, but neverthelessas something
essentiallydifferent.3
'SeeACT nos.102,722,726,135,161,
17l, 194,420.
j
E.g., Anu-abi,uttere
calls himself lupiar EnumaAnu Enlil andkalfi in
\m 171and 194,but kalfronly in ACT 600and802:Samas-etir is aiipu and
::lpiarEnumaAnuEnlil in ACT 163,butaiipu onlyin ACT 601.
There is one further point in these colophons worth comment in this
context, and that relates to the genealogiesof the tablet owners. As is
well known, practically all Seleucid scribal families traced their origins
back to eponymousancestorsliving in a distant past,6 and I would like to
make a point here about one particular ancestor encountered in the
astrological-astronomicalcolophons. It is Sin-leqe-unninni, otherwise
known as the editor of the StandardBabylonian version of the epic of
Gilgamesh, and elsewhereentitled ,,exorcist."7The point is that if the
title ,,exorcist" does not particularly well agree with our idea of an
astronomer,it certainly does not suit any better our preconceivedideas of
who the editor of a major philosophical work like the epic of Gilgamesh
should have been. This underlines that one has to be extremely cautious
in applying the modern notions of ,,astronomy" and ,,philosophy" to
ancient Mesopotamia.
lraving the Seleucid era and moving back in time to the Neo-Assyrian
(Sargonid) period, we encountera remarkably similar situation' From this
perioO we ha"e a large corpus of astrological letters and reports to the
king, and as F. Rochberg-Halton just pointed out, these dispatcheswere
not authoredexclusively by ,,Enuma-Anu-Enlil-scribes";the sendersalso
include,,exorcists" and,Jamentationpriests". Another similarity with the
Seleucid period are the genealogiesof the report-writers. The Assyrian
scholars also traced their families back to ancient times, and largely,
though not always, perpetuatedthe sameprofessionsas their fathers and
ancestors.S
Now I would not like to make too much of the fact that people like
exorcists and lamentation-priests are found among the senders of the
Sargonid reports; after all, most Salgonid letters and reports of
astrological COntent were written by ,,scribes" or ,,astrologers".
Nevertheless, the fact is there and calls for an explanation. Why did
professional exorcists and lamentation priests occupy themselves with
matters of asrology and observationalastronomy?
e SeeLAS 2, AppendixMl.
1o See, e.g., LAS nos. 167, 185 and 333 (exorcistsco-operatingwith
lamentationpriests);no. 246: 18f and relevant commentary(haruspices
cooperatingwith physicians).
1lse KAII 44 r.16ff, editedby H. Zimmem, ZA 30 (1916), 2Mff , and recently
by J. Botter6 in Annuairire, Ilcole Pratique des hautes Etudes, IVe section,
19741197 5 (Paris 1975),95ff.
.l SeeS. Parpola,,,AssyrianLibrary Records",JNES 42 (1983), 8ff.
52
fortunes of the state.He could not just behaveany way he wanted; his
conduct had to correspondto the way the gods wished him to act.
One should be keenly aware of the fact that omen astrology in the sense
of a mechanical system of haphazardly correlated celestial signs and
mundane events did not exist in Mesopotamia. There was always a
messagein the signs- they were meaningful signals,not just producers
of certain haphazardeffects on the earth.
For this rei$on the personality of the king was magically transferred to
the substitutp. He takes on the person and the sins of the king and dies as
him, while &e king himself becomes a different person through a pr@ess
called ,,ablution house" (bit rimki), a cycle of apotropaic rituals
performed in connection with the lunar eclipse. The purpose of this cycle
was to purify the person of the king. He dons new garments' washes
away his sins, and confessesthat he has sinned. Embedded in the cycle
are beautiful hyrnns and prayers closely resembling Biblical psalms. In
fact, some of them are so beautiful that in translation they could easily be
mistaken for Biblical verses.There the king tells that he does not know
15Ott the subginrre king ritual seeLAS 2, pp. XXI-XXXII and the literature
listedibid, p. XXIL
lTseebelow.
55
,Jf the structure of the houseon the outsideis alluring, it will not
endure;
If the structureof a houseis unprepossessing, is inhabitantwill be
happyi'22
27 For the time being seeGuinan, crt.p. 227tf and I. Starr,The Ritunls of the
D iviner (Malibu 1983),8-24.
28SeeS. Lieberman,,,A Mesopotamian Backgroundfor the So-CalledAggadic
Measures'of Biblical Hermeneutics", HUCA 58 (1987),157-225.
29For detailssee,e.g.,D. S. Milto, Kabbalah(New York 1980);P. S. Epstein,
Kabbalah: The Way of the Javish Mystic (GardenCity, NY, 1978);C. Ponc6,
Kabbalah(SanFransisco1973):Z. bn ShimonHalevi,Kabbalah.Traditionof
H iddcn Knowledge(London 1979).
59
-tO,,Ileamt the craft of the sageAdapa, the esotericsecretof the entire scribal
:radition; I have observed and discussedcelestial and terrestrial signs in the
neetings of scholars; I ponder with experts divinen the liver, the image of
:eaven; I can solve complicated mathematicalproblems lacking solution; I read
sophisticatedtexts written in obscure Sumerian and hardly understandable
{kkadian; I have studied stone inscriptions from time before the Flood ..."
S;reck,Asb.,p.252i 13-18).
Die Rolleder
Astronomie
in den KulturenMesopotamiens
Beitriigezum
3. GrazerMorgenliindischenSymposion
(23.-27. September 199I )
herausgegeben
von HannesD. Galter
Graz1993