Tzvi Abusch

The Development and Meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: An Interpretive Essay

This essay traces the history of the several major versions (Old Babylonian, eleven-tablet, and twelve-tablet) of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh and examines the development of meaning from one version to the next. The focus is on the underlying conflict or conflicts that define and impart power to the work, that is, the conflict between the extraordinary and the normal. We will notice that in the Epic there is a constant conflict between the heroic values that the warrior-hero Gilgamesh represents and those other existential values that defined Mesopotamian culture and that appear in the Epic in the form of Gilgameshs several non-heroic identities: in the Old Babylonian version, the conflict is that of hero versus man; in the eleven-tablet version that of hero versus king; and in the twelve-tablet version that of hero versus god.

The Magical Ceremony Maqlû

The Akkadian series Maqlu is the most important magical text against witchcraft from Mesopotamia. This new edition of the standard text contains a synoptic edition of all manuscripts, a composite text in transliteration, an annotated transcription and translation.

Additions and Corrections to Volume 1

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Additional Texts to Volume 1

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Bibliography (Volumes 1–2)

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Registers (Volumes 1–2)

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Texts of Group Three: Prescriptions for Symptoms Indicating Witchcraft

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Concordances (Volumes 1–2)

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Jonah and God: Plants, Beasts, and Humans in the Book of Jonah (An Essay in Interpretation)1

AbstractThe book of Jonah concludes with a puzzling rhetorical question by God, connecting plants, animals, and the people of Nineveh (4:10–11). This essay attempts to explain the logic of this rhetoric and to lay out its precise force, thereby clarifying the literary message of the book.

The Chicago Maqlû fragment (A 7876)

The fragment A 7876 (Oriental Institute, Chicago) occupies a special position among the cuneiform sources of the ritual Maqlu . The six-column tablet, inscribed in the Neo-Assyrian script of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, originally contained the complete text of the series with its nine canonical tablets. Taking into account the relevant duplicate manuscripts the article offers an annotated edition of this fragment and compares its style and format to other “large tablets” ( dubgallu ) of Babylonian literary texts.