PROBLEMS OF DEFINITIONS
The Mesopotamian omen literature presents a problem to all who want to define the corpus from the point of view of the history of science and religion. The Mesopotamian omen compendia are highly complex phenomena that escape any precise and simple categorization.
It can be said that from our contemporary perspective the Mesopotamian omen literature consists of a blend of observational sciences, common-sense attitudes, and religious beliefs. Even if not all Babylonian theories of signs make sense to a modern mind “etically,” it may not be wrong to assume that they certainly did “emically” to the participants of that culture. The first part of the original title of this seminar, “Science and Superstition,” was deliberately chosen as provocative, in order to create some discussions about our inherited cultural biases. Whether a given statement represents a false belief or a scientific truth depends on a concrete epistemological situation, and can be ascertained only by some scientific proof or disproof, which may not be always available. As a modern online dictionary defines it, superstition is “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance” (Webster), and in this sense the term, as historically overloaded with negative connotations, is indeed useless in any serious discussion about ancient science (Rochberg, this volume). The philosophical or intellectual “superiority” of the monotheistic belief over any polytheistic system is often represented in the preconceived worldview of many textbooks as an axiom, thus it is often difficult to discard the popular prejudice that the science began with the Enlightenment.It may be of interest, however, that the folklorist Alan Dundes has tried to define superstition technically as a folkloric genre. As much as I understand Dundes’ effort, it is about defining superstition as a category of knowledge in folk religion.
Without any regard to the validity of the practices and beliefs involved, Dundes argues, the category of superstition applies to the statements and practices making use of the logical fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc (Dundes 1961: 27). Further, it interests Dundes to define superstitions formally at least to such extent that one would know a superstition when he came across it in folkloristic fieldwork. According to him, the formula — or rather the underlying thinking model — is a naively expressed and literally understood “If A, then B.” This model, which is remarkably close to the form of a Babylonian omen, characterizes the sign superstitions for Dundes (Dundes 1961: 30). However, as I argue above, the “if... then” format neither necessarily represents causality, nor prescribes any particular type of content. The use of conditionals is not the formal hallmark capable of sorting out superstitions from other types of knowledge, not even in folklore. Accordingly, the use of the term “superstitions” for folk beliefs in this restricted sense is not without problems either.As I outline above, the omens present in the Mesopotamian compendia were collected from sources of heterogeneous origin. The Babylonian omens can therefore not be classified in an “either. or” manner, for example, as mixes of “sciences” and “superstitions”; rather, they had manifold origins and functions. And most of all, they testify to the ample observational interests of ancient Mesopotamians, which in turn had a deep impact on the surrounding world. The results and inferences of such observations gained in the ancient world would not always count as scientific from our contemporary perspective, but these texts contain important raw data for the study of the history of the human mind and the functioning of the human brain. One can say metaphorically that as our own times will pass into antiquity, future scholars will look at our accomplishments in the field of intellectual culture with similar glasses — as a blend of true (“scientific”) and false (“superstitious”) beliefs, often mixed up without any clear distinction.
In the end, the definitions are not as important as the content.| BIBLIOGRAPHY
| |
| Annus, Amar 2006 | “The Survivals of the Ancient Syrian and Mesopotamian Intellectual Traditions in the Writings of Ephrem Syrus.” Ugarit-Forschungen 38: 1-25. |
| Arbel, Daphna 2008 | “Enoch-Metatron: The Highest of All Tapsarim? 3 Enoch and Divinatory Traditions.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 15: 289-320. |
| Bottero, Jean 1992 | Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
| Brown, David 2000 | Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology. Cuneiform Monographs 18. Groningen: Styx. |
Budge, E. A. Wallis
| 1913 | Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics; or, “The Book of Medicines.” London: Oxford University Press. |
| Burkert, Walter 1992 | The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. |
| Collins, John J. 1998 | The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature. 2nd edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. |
Cooper, Jerrold S.
| 1980 | “Apodotic Death and the Historicity of ‘Historical’ Omens.” In Death in Mesopotamia: Papers Read at the XXVIe Rencontre assyriologique internationale, edited by B. Alster, pp. 99-105. Mesopotamia 8. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag. |
Cryer, Frederick H.
| 1994 | Divination in Ancient Israel and Its Near Eastern Environment: A Socio-Historical Investigation. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 142. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. |
| Cumont, Franz 1912 | Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans. American Lectures on the History of Religions 8. New York; London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. |
Dittenberger, Wilhelm
| 1924 | Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum. 3rd edition. Leipzig: Lipsiae Hirzel. |
Drower, Ethel Stefana
| 1937 | The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic, Legends, and Folklore. London: Clarendon. |
| Dundes, Alan 1961 Fahd, Toufic 1966 | “Brown County Superstitions.” Midwest Folklore 11: 25-50. La divination arabe: Etudes religieuses, sociologiques et folkloriques sur le milieu natif de l’Islam. Leiden: Brill. |
| 1991 | “Malhama.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition. Volume 6, p. 247. Leiden: Brill. |
Falkenstein, Adam
1966 “‘Wahrsagung’ in der sumerischen Überlieferung.” In La divination en Mesopotamie
ancienne et dans les regions voisines, pp. 45-68. XlVe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Fincke, Jeanette C.
2006-2007 “Omina, die gottlichen ‘Gesetze’ der Divination.” Ex Orient Lux 40: 131-47.
Freedman, Sally
1998 If a City is Set on a Height: The Akkadian Omen Series Summa Alu ina Mele
Sakin. Volume 1: Tablets 1-21. Philadelphia: S. N. Kramer Fund.
Geller, Markham J.
2000 “The Survival of Babylonian Wissenschaft in Later Tradition.” In The Heirs of
Assyria: Proceedings of the Opening Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Tvärminne, Finland, October 8-11,1998, edited by S.
Aro and R. M. Whiting, pp. 1-6. Melammu Symposia 1. Helsinki: The NeoAssyrian Text Corpus Project.Greenfield, J. C., and M. Sokoloff
1989 “Astrological and Related Omen Texts in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic.” Journal of
Near Eastern Studies 48: 201-14.
1995 “An Astrological Text from Qumran (4Q318) and Reflections on some Zodiacal
Names.” Revue de Qumran 69-70: 507-25.
Guinan, Ann K.
1998 “Auguries of Hegemony: The Sex Omens of Mesopotamia.” In Gender and the Body
in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by M. Wyke, pp. 38-55. Oxford: Blackwell.
2002 “A Severed Head Laughed: Stories of Divinatory Interpretation.” In Magic and
Divination in the Ancient World, edited by L. Ciraolo and J. Seidel, pp. 7-40. Ancient Magic and Divination 2. Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill and Styx.
Kingsley, Peter
1995 “Meetings with Magi: Iranian Themes among the Greeks, from Xanthus of Lydia to
Plato’s Academy.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 5: 173-209
Koch-Westenholz, Ulla
1995 Mesopotamian Astrology: An Introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian Celestial
Divination. Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications 19. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Kraus, Fritz R.
1936 “Ein Sittenkanon in Omenform.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 43: 77-113.
Lambert, Wilfred G.
1998“The Qualifications of Babylonian Diviners.” In Festschrift für Rykle Borger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Mai 1994: tikip santakki mala basmu..., edited by S. M. Maul, pp. 141-58. Cuneiform Monographs 10. Groningen: Styx.
Lonsdale, S. H.
1979 “Attitudes towards Animals in Ancient Greece.” Greece and Rome 26: 146-59.
Maul, Stefan M.
1994 Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der baby
lonisch-assyrischen Loserituale (Namburbi). Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.
1999“How the Babylonians Protected Themselves against Calamities Announced by Omens.” In Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical, and Interpretive Perspectives, edited by T.
Absuch and K. van der Toorn, pp. 123-29. Studies in Ancient Magic and Divination 1. Groningen: Styx.
| oi.uchicago.edu |
ON THE BEGINNINGS AND CONTINUITIES OF OMEN SCIENCES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 17
| 2003 | “Omina und Orakel. A. Mesopotamien.” In Reallexikon der Assyriologie 10: 45-88. |
Oppenheim, A. Leo
| 1964 | Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
| 1974 | “A Babylonian Diviner's Manual.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33: 197-220. |
Panaino, Antonio
| 2005 | “Lunar and Snake Omens among the Zoroastrians.” In Officina Magica: Essays on the Practice of Magic in Antiquity, edited by S. Shaked, pp. 73-89. Institute of Jewish Studies in Judaica 4. Leiden: Brill. |
| Pingree, David 1992 | “Mesopotamian Omens in Sanskrit.” In La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idees dans le Proche-Orient ancien, edited by D. Charpin and F. Joannes, pp. 375-79. 38e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. |
| 1997 | From Astral Omens to Astrology. From Babylon to Bikaner. Serie Orientale Roma 78. Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente. |
| Reiner, Erica 1998 | “Apodoses and Logia.” In “Und Mose schrieb dieses Lied auf.” Studien zum Alten Testament und zum Alten Orient: Festschrift für Oswald Loretz zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres mit Beiträgen von Freunden, Schülern und Kollegen, edited by M. Dietrich and I. Kottsieper, pp. 651-54. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 250. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. |
Rochberg, Francesca
| 1999 | “The Babylonian Origins of the Mandaean Book of the Zodiac.” ARAM 11: 237-47. |
| 2006 | “Old Babylonian Celestial Divination.” In If a Man Builds a Joyful House: Assyriological Studies in Honor of Erle Verdun Leichty, edited by A. K. Guinan, pp. 337-48. Cuneiform Monographs 31. Leiden: Brill. |
Schimmel, Annemarie
| 1994 | Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam. Albany: State University of New York. |
| Scurlock, JoAnn 2003 | Review of Die babylonisch-assyrische Morphoskopie (Vienna, 2000), by B. Bock. Journal of the American Oriental Society 123: 395-99. |
Sims-Williams, Nicholas
| 1995 | “Christian Sogdian Texts from the Nachlass of Olaf Hansen 2: Fragments of Polemic and Prognostics.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58: 288-302. |
| Smith, Morton 1987 | “The Occult in Josephus.” In Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity, edited by L. Feldman and G. Hata, pp. 236-56. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. |
| Starr, Ivan 1983 Veldhuis, Niek 1999 | The Rituals of the Diviner. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 12. Malibu: Undena. “Reading the Signs.” In All Those Nations: Cultural Encounters within and with the Near East; Studies Presented to Han Drijvers at the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday by Colleagues and Students, edited by H. L. J. Vanstiphout, pp. 161-74. Groningen: Styx. |
| 18 | AMAR ANNUS |
| 2006 | “Divination: Theory and Use.” In If a Man Builds a Joyful House: Assyriological Studies in Honor of Erle Verdun Leichty, edited by A. K. Guinan, pp. 487-97. Cuneiform Monographs 31. Leiden: Brill. |
Westbrook, Raymond
| 1985 | bgcolor=white>“Biblical and Cuneiform Law Codes.” Revue Biblique 92: 247-68.