The Divine/Demonic Seven and the Place of Demons in Mesopotamia

Gina Konstantopoulos, Ph.D. (2015), University of Michigan, is an Assistant Professor in Assyriology and Cuneiform Studies at the University of California Los Angeles. She has published on magic, religion, and literature in Mesopotamia.

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

List of Appendices

Frequently Cited Texts and Their Editions



Introduction

 Terminology and Defining the Demonic

 Previous Studies and Writing the Sebettu

 Seven as a Number of Significance

 Overview of the Book



1 The Variable Nature of Demons

 1 The Mostly Malevolent Udug

 2 The Ambiguous Alad

 3 The Benevolent Lamma



2 Early Foundations of Literary Evidence and Cultic Use

 1 Third Millennium References

 2 The Sumerian Narrative of Gilgameš and Huwawa

 3 Lugalbanda in the Wilderness: The Torches of Inana

 4 The Malevolent Sebettu in Old Babylonian Incantations

 5 The Hymn to Hendursaĝa

 6 Literary Tropes and the Subservience of Demons

 7 Second Millennium Cultic Evidence



3 The Escalated Use of the Sebettu in the First Millennium

 1 First Millennium Literary Texts

 2 Expansionist Politics: The Initial Stages of the Assyrian Empire

 3 Initial Decline

 4 Returning to Strength

 5 The Last Great Kings of Assyria

 6 Ritual and Cultic Connections



4 The Sebettu in Incantations and Household Use

 1 The Sebettu in Incantations

 2 The Sebettu and the Udug Hul Incantation Series

 3 Malevolence and Benevolence: A Survey of the Incantations as a Whole



5 Iconography and the Pleiades

 1 The Behavior of the Pleiades

 2 Astral Imagery and the Pleiades

 3 Iconography and Representations of the Sebettu

 4 Seals and the Pleiades



Conclusion: Concerning Demons



Appendix A: Comparative Epithets of the Sebettu

Appendix B: Birds, Deities, and Cries in the Birdcall Text

Appendix C: Textual Attestations to the Sebettu

Appendix D: Star Maps

Appendix E: Catalogue of Cylinder Seals

Works Cited

Index