Utukkū Lemnūtu, 'Evil Demons', is a compendium of incantations and rituals against all kinds of evil, mostly in bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian. Utukkū Lemnūtu first offers vivid descriptions of wide range of demons, such as the Utukku, Alû, Gallû, Asakku and Rābiṣu, along with many others. Their misdeeds are enumerated as well as their malevolent actions against people.
For instance, STT 2, 172 [/cams/gkab/P338491/] describes the effect of the Asakku-demon, while STT 2, 173 [/cams/gkab/P338492/] those of Namtaru. Then the texts of Utukkū Lemnūtu introduce the āšipu (human or divine): they recount both his qualities and powers and the rites he may perform. Finally ritual instructions are provided, either alternating with the incantations or independently (e.g., SpTU 5, 235 [/cams/gkab/P348822/]). Unlike the ritual series Šurpu and Maqlû, Utukkū Lemnūtu does not have a separate ritual Tablet.
Most incantations highlight the god Marduk's power over the demons: some Tablets of the series are structured like hymns praising his strength as the divine āšipu. Many incantations feature a dialogue between the god Ea and his son Marduk, where the former gives instructions to the latter. The manuscripts from Kalhu and Uruk belong to this "Marduk-Ea type". By contrast, the Huzirina manuscripts belong to the "Enki type", in which Ea (here called by his Sumerian name Enki) works alone.
According to Nineveh sources, the compendium covers sixteen Tablets but this division does not clearly appear in the Huzirina and Kalhu manuscripts. The colophons do not provide any numbers, and the texts cannot easily be placed in any of the sixteen Tablets because of the numerous variants from the Nineveh manuscripts. The Nineveh series goes like this:
- Tablet 1 simply gathers incantations now known as zi-pa3 "be ajured by ...", after the Sumerian formula that punctuates them (e.g., CTN 4, 112 [/cams/gkab/P363526/]).
- Tablet 2 includes both a hymn to Marduk, written in Akkadian only, and a catalogue of demons and diseases.
- The incantations on Tablets 3-5 originate in the first half of the second millennium. They are similarly organised: a description of the demons' actions against people followed by the āšipu's intervention. Tablet 5 introduces the group of demons called the Seven (Akk. Sebettu), who play an increasingly important part in the rest of the composition, and the demoness Ardat-lilî, a female ghost without husband or children. The āšipu's preparations are then described. He asks for protection from the demons, first for himself and then for his client, and finally recounts his qualifications as Marduk's deputy. SpTU 3, 64 [/cams/gkab/P348667/], an Achaemenid manuscript from Uruk, is an excerpt of Tablet 4.
- Tablet 6 first describes the characteristics of the Utukku-demon itself. That passage is followed by a long list of demons that must not approach the client, and a series of incantations depicting demonic activities.
- Tablet 7 describes the demons' effects upon the āšipu's client. The text contains incantations and rituals, in which a drum is used to frighten demons off. STT 2, 192 [/cams/gkab/P338511/] from Huzirina is similar to Tablet 7: it first enumerates the evil activities of various demons, then mentions a ritual with the kušgugalû-drum, made from the hide of a great ox. But unlike the Nineveh manuscripts, the Huzirina sources do not mention Marduk, only Ea by his Sumerian name, Enki.
- Tablet 8 deals exclusively with the activity of the Alû-demon.
- Tablet 9 concentrates on protecting houses from the demons who have caused the house's protective gods to leave.
- Tablets 10 and 11 are also known by the modern title 'Marduk's Address to the Demons', which was sometimes regarded as an independent composition. Marduk praises himself and enumerates all the demons he can fight and destroy (e.g., SpTU 4, 130 [/cams/gkab/P348724/]).
- Tablet 12 first describes demons as storms, but the innovation in this Tablet lies in the ritual described to cure the client, in which a scapegoat is used. All the client's pains are successively transferred onto the goat, which is finally slaughtered (e.g., STT 2, 172 [/cams/gkab/P338491/]).
Substitutes for the client are often used in these rituals. According to the Huzirina manuscript STT 2, 173 [/cams/gkab/P338492/], it is a clay figurine.
- Tablets 13-15 focus on the demonic Seven (Sebettu) (e.g., SpTU 2, 1 [/cams/gkab/P348606/]).
- Tablet 16 is radically different from the others. It tells how the goddess Ištar and other gods try to eclipse the moon, thanks to collusion with the Seven.
In all, there are thirty manuscripts of Utukkū Lemnūtu in the CAMS/GKAB corpus. Around half of them—sixteen—are from Huzirina. According to their colophons, two were written by scribal apprentices, Qurdi-Nergal PGP and Nabu-ah-iddin PGP . SpTU 4, 195 [/cams/gkab/P274496/], from early Hellenistic Uruk, is an exercise tablet containing Utukkū Lemnūtu on one side and Tablet 5 of UR.RA5 = hubullu on the other.
Further Reading