The Babylonian Conception of Heaven and Hell/Necromancy
Necromancy.
Among the magic arts of the Babylonian priests necromancy undoubtedly held a prominent place. A series of mythological texts shows that scenes such as that between Saul and the witch of Endor were familiar to Babylonian fancy also. Among the lists of the various orders of priests we find the offices of "Exorcist of the spirits of the dead," the priest "who raises the spirit of the dead," and the Sha'ilu, the "enquirer of the dead."
The literature so far known to us has no example of the "enquiring of the dead." On the other hand, the ceremony for the raising of spirits seems to be described in the concluding lines of "Istar's Journey in Hades," though the exact meaning remains indeed somewhat doubtful. It is there stated in conclusion that at the feast of Tammuz the dead shall arise and breathe the fragrance of sacrifice. It may be concluded from this that the feast of Tammuz was celebrated by solemn invocations of the dead.
At the close of the Gilgamesh epic there is an instance of how such invocation was actually practised. On returning from his ancestor, Gilgamesh with his companion held solemn lamentation over his friend Eabani, who "verily has sunk down to the shades." "Every twenty miles they intoned the dirge (?), every thirty miles they held a festival in honour of the dead." With his dirge he went from one temple to another complaining that no evil malady had consumed his friend, that he had not fallen in the field of battle among men, but that the world of the dead had snatched him away. At last he turned to the god of the Underworld himself, to the "hero and lord" Nergal. Ea said to him, "'Knock at the chamber of the tomb (?) [open the earth that the spirit of Eabani may come forth from the Underworld].' [When] the hero Nergal heard this he knocked at the chamber of the tomb (?), opened the Underworld, and straightway let the spirit of Eabani go forth from out the earth like a breath of wind."[1]
Thus then the ghosts of the dead were raised, but to rid oneself of ghosts that had been raised or that had escaped may well have appeared a more difficult matter. "I will raise the dead that they eat and live; more than the living shall the dead be," says Istar. To the Babylonians this was a terrible threat, for by them the shades from the Underworld were regarded as among the most malignant of evil demons. In one exorcism a sick man complains that the wizard and the witch have delivered him into the hands of a wandering ghost, and again the suffering of a man grievously ill is accounted for by the statement "the wicked ghost has come forth" (i.e., from the Underworld). A collection of prayers of the time of Asurbanipal includes the prayer of a man possessed by a ghost. Complaint is made that the ghost will not loose his hold of the sick man day or night, so that his hair stands on end and his limbs are as if paralysed. The Sun god is entreated to free him from this demon, whether it be the shade of one of the family or that of some murdered man that is oppressing his being. The sufferer has already bestowed on his tormentor clothes and shoes and a girdle, as well as a water skin and food for his departing journey. Now let him go to the West, to the Underworld, and there may the god Nedu, the gate-keeper of Hades, retain him fast that he escape no more.
- ↑ This exorcism and indeed the whole Babylonian conception of the Underworld recalls the eleventh book of the "Odyssey," where the spirits of the dead are called by night to the Cimmerian shore, and wing their flight up to earth.