Astral Magic in Babylonia.

• Author: Lambert, W.G.
• Position: Review

By ERICA REINER. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 85, no. 4. Philadelphia: THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 1995. Pp. xiii + 150. $20 (paper).

It is a pleasure to observe that an author who has given so much of her life to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary has still been able to collect the material for this scholarly monograph and to complete it. It is devoted to various kinds of ancient Mesopotamian magic, most of which are related to the heavenly bodies, sun, and moon as well as the stars. As a brief summary one cannot improve on the opening paragraph of the first chapter: "Stars function in a dual role in relation to man: they exert a direct influence and serve as mediators between man and god. Directly, through astral irradiation, they transform ordinary substances into potent ones that will be effective in magic, medicine, or ritual, as materia medica, amulets, or cultic appurtenances. Stars also provide reliable answers to the query of the diviner. More important, in their second role stars are man's medium of communication with the divine" (p. 15).

The aim of the work is to draw together material illustrating the various kinds of magic, and to present it with attention to related material known from classical antiquity and later European civilization. The relationship of cuneiform mythology and historical materials to the myths and history of other peoples is a well-explored matter, but hitherto there has been little attention given to magic in the context of different civilizations. A little of the Mesopotamian material has been gathered in articles, but this is the first attempt at a serious monograph. The cuneiform material has been collected at first hand from the prime publications. For the classical and other sources, advice of colleagues was obtained. The results are presented in the hope that scholars in other fields will acquaint themselves with the Mesopotamian materials. Thus, all cuneiform texts are cited in translation in the body of the book. Transliterations of the original script appear regularly in the footnotes. This is haute vulgarisation.

One can but admire the comprehensive trawl of the cuneiform sources and of the significant secondary literature. The classical and other material is no doubt less complete and, ideally, rabbinic, Mandaic, and ancient Indian sources should also have been culled for parallels, but a serious comparative work is a long way off. The author has shrewdly...