The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian
Mis Pî Ritual
State Archives of Assyria Literary Texts, Volume I
by Christopher Walker and Michael Dick
Helsinki 2001 • 175 x 250 mm • Pp. viii + 268 + CD with tablet photographs
Paper • $119.00 • ISBN 951-45-9048-1
Thanks to George Bernard Shaw, everyone knows the story of
Pygmalion and the statue that was brought to life. But the idea
of bringing statues to life long predates the classical period.
At last the critical edition of the Mesopotamian "Washing of the
Mouth" (Mis Pî) ritual has been published. This volume contains
all the known texts of the 6 to 8 tablet ritual, including both
ritual and incantation tablets; the volume includes new
photographs of all the cuneiform manuscripts on a CD-ROM in high
quality jpeg format. This book will be of interest to
Assyriologists, scholars of the Hebrew Bible, and students of
ancient religion and magic. This was the Mesopotamian ritual
whereby the cult image was consecrated as the god, in essence,
"brought to life." So here we have the most elaborate theology of
the cult image preserved anywhere in the ancient world. The
original Akkadian and Sumerian texts are given together with
English translation. The book begins with an introduction both to
the divine cult image in Mesopootamia and to the history of the
Mis Pî ritual.
Order this