Ancient mesopotamian magic 3100 500 BCE The sun is setting A warm desert breeze hisses through the bulrushes on the banks of the Tigris River Inside a hut filled with the scent of incense a woman lies stricken by sickness Beside her sits a man mixing a potion and whispering an incantation to the great god Ea Welcome to Mesopotamia From the Taurus Mountain in what is now southern Turkey two mighty rivers flow the Tigris and Euphrates Between these rivers lies the fertile land of Mesopotamia where the first human civilisations started 5,000 years ago These civilisations invented the first written languages built huge cities and travelled far and wide They also held a strong belief in magic Learned magicians The people who practised magic in Mesopotamia were called ašipu meaning exorcist someone who drives away evil spirits In this culture only men were allowed to practise magic Ašipu were highly respected scholars and doctors who tried to cure illnesses by fighting the evil magic they believed had caused them They spent their lives studying their art and praying to Ea the Mesopotamian god of magic and medicine see page 12 10
Medical magic The ašipu used magic for many things warding off evil spells created by other magic users repelling ghosts or soothing a vengeful god’s anger Once they diagnosed a sickness the ašipu attempted to cure the sufferer using a mixture of medicine magical spells and prayers to Ea The aim was to cleanse the patient’s soul of the evil sorcery that had caused the disease Although far less effective than modern medicine it’s possible that the ašipu’s work had a generally helpful effect on the patient’s mental and physical wellbeing A taste of their own medicine For the ašipu life was a constant battle between light and dark magic While the ašipu used magic to help people there were other sorcerers working in the shadows who used it for evil purposes The ancient Mesopotamians thought dark magic was used to cause calamities bad luck and sickness When disaster struck people employed ašipu to draw the curse out from a victim of dark magic and send it back to the evil sorcerer so they suffered the consequences instead 11
EA Lord of the Abzu The Mesopotamians worshipped many gods and goddesses but Ea was one of the most important They believed he was the source of all magical wisdom Ea was something of a trickster Legend tells that he used his cunning to outwit Enlil the supreme god of the Mesopotamians The story goes that while sitting at home in the Abzu Ea’s underground ocean realm he was struck with the idea of creating something truly special Using figures moulded from clay Ea created the human race From that moment on humanity served the gods and spread across the Earth in their multitudes Enlil became enraged with humanity’s constant clamour as the noise of their lives made it impossible for him to sleep Unable to withhold his anger Enlil created a flood to sweep the lands and rid himself of the maddening humans But the clever Ea foresaw Enlil’s murderous plan Desperate to save his people from a watery doom Ea ordered a man called Atrahasis to build a ship and invite all of humanity on board When Enlil’s flood rose to cover the whole face of the Earth the boat lifted with it and the people were saved all thanks to Ea Lord of the Abzu
