In most cultures, demons are considered menacing forces whose attack brings as a consequence the manifestation of what from a modern bioscience per­spective we could call illnesses.[138]

In modern biomedicine, disease is perceived as an organic dysfunction which undermines the psycho-physical state of the patient. In Mesopotamia, disease was only part of a more complex, holistic system, which involved each single aspect of the patient's world and that could be related to the general concepts of misfortune and suffering.

While a close and unambiguous association between illness and demonic action cannot be fully traced,^[139] the way demons attack their victims follows certain formulaic patterns that are easily recognizable in cuneiform texts. In this paper I will therefore analyse the different ways demons act, as well as the role they play in relation to suffering, according to the different Mesopota­mian sources.