1 ASAKKÛ: DEMONS AND ILLNESS IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA ANDRÁS BÁCSKAY PÁZMÁNY PÉTER CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT This paper describes the elements of demonology in Mesopotamian texts as background for research on demons in the Hebrew Bible. The demon in Mesopotamian mythological culture was identified with one of the winds bringing illnesses; specifically with the hot wind, which was often connected to the appearance of the spread of infectious diseases. The essay aims to describe some parallel and different phenomena within the concepts of illness-demon- impurity contained in the ancient Near East and biblical text-traditions. 1. THE PROBLEM The study of demons in the Hebrew Bible has long relied on data provided by Mesopotamian religion and magic (Van der Toorn 2003, 61). The comparison with the Mesopotamian sources, however, is significantly limited, first by the lack of comprehensive studies on the demon-related Mesopotamian text-tradition and, second, by the fact that the majority of the apotropaic incantation and ritual descriptions are only published in cuneiform copies. The most elaborated texts relate to the evil demon Lamaštu (Farber 1989; Wiggermann 2000, 217–49), the other evil demon Utukku (Geller 2011) and to Pazuzu, a benevolent demon (Heeßel 2002). Two trends can be observed in biblical demonology (Blair 2009, 1–13). A comparatist trend claims that the ancient Israelite religion was similar to Mesopotamian and Ugaritic religions and