Bácskay, András; Incantations and Healing Treatments against Lamaštu in Mesopotamian Therapeutic Prescriptions 5 Incantations and Healing Treatments against Lamaštu in Mesopotamian Therapeutic Prescriptions András BÁCSKAY * The character of Lamaštu As an introduction I would like to sum up shortly the main characteristics of Lamaštu. The name of the demon was written d DIM3/ d DIM8/ d DIM11.ME or recently KAMAD.ME in Sumerian texts or syllabically Lamaštu in Akkadian incantations. 1 In the text of the canonical incantation series the demon was a child of the god Anu and her mother is Anu’s consort, Antu. In an Old-Babylonian incantation the demon was described as follows: ‘Anu has begotten her, Ea enlarged her (shape) and Enlil gave her lion face’. 2 Based on the canonical incantation series Lamaštu was expelled from the Heaven onto the Earth by his father because she decided to kill the new-born babies in the human sphere. This description in the canonical incantation series quite fits to the character of the demon in Atramhasis myth where the demon belongs to group of demonic creatures who act against the overpopulation. 3 Lamaštu belongs to the group of harmful demons among the Mesopotamian supernatural beings and the name of Lamaštu appears together with further demons (Labaṣu, Aḫḫazu, Bibitu and Lillitu) in the last section of the canonical god-list An-Anum. 4 Furthermore, Lamaštu is a standard component of the so-called ‘catalogue of demons and diseases’ which can be found in the anti-witchcraft and apotropaic incantation series and similar to the god-list An-Anum, the demon generally appears together with the demons Aḫḫazu and Labasu. 5 According to the Lamaštu incantations, the dwelling space of the demon on the Earth is in the mountains or the marshland, in sum, in territories that are beyond the human cultivated area. Lamaštu’s journey by boat to marshland was often depicted on Lamaštu plaquettes and the figure of Lamaštu standing on a donkey back could refer to the journey to the mountains. 6 The iconographical elements of various predators (like the head of a lion or eagle and animal claws on her hands or feet) in the depiction of the demon represents the unrestrainable and devastating character of Lamaštu. The snakes holding in her hands or the dog and pig figures standing or sitting next to her also * Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest-Piliscsaba 1 For the etimology of the name, see Farber, 1980–1983, p.439; Wiggermann, 2000, p. 217; Tourtet, 2010, p. 243 and recently George 2018. 2 Nies–Keiser, 1920. no. 72. lines 1–2. and Farber, 2014, p. 260. 3 The text mentioned the demon Pašittu (tablet III col. vii line 4) but its character is quite similar or same to Lamaštu (Wiggermann, 2011, p. 311). 4 In lines 153-157 (Litke, 1998, p. 240). In cuneiform sources the name of 119 demons can be identified but we do not know any source which lists systematically demon names (Wiggermann, 2011, p. 307). 5 For the references, see Bácskay, 2013, p. 6 footnote no. 68. Lamaštu was also mentioned on the LB tablet which contains an incantation and ritual against Pazuzu (SpTU II 9 line 97, edited by Heeßel, 2002, p. 59 and Heeßel, 2011, p. 363). 6 Some Lamaštu plaquette (for instance Heeßel, 2002, p. 209 no.30) depicts Lamaštu standing on a boat which moves to marshland (Heeβel, 2014, p. 57) and a ritual from canonical Lamaštu incantations series describes Lamaštu expelling to the steppe using a donkey substitute figure(tablet I. lines 220-232), but any other reference for using the boat in Lamaštu rituals is unknown to me.