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A passage in the Greek magical papyrus explains the obscure Akkadian expression SAL šadbubu. The assumption is that the woman will tell in her sleep whether she has a lover, and who her lover is.
KAR 61.22-25:
To make a woman speak: (you perform the ritual, and) this woman will tell you wherever she goes, she will not withhold it, you can make love to her.
BRM 4.20.17:
‘To make a woman talk’ (means) ‘to interrogate the woman’; a woman of e-dul-la will enter and whatever you ask her, she will tell to you.
Papyri Graeci Magici 7.411-416:
‘Spell for causing talk while asleep (nyktolalēma)’: Take the heart of a hoopoe and place it in myrrh. And write on a strip of hieratic papyrus the names and characters and roll up the heart in the strip of papyrus and place it upon her pudenda (psychē) and ask your questions. And she will confess everything to you.
Auctarium Cavense 65:
If you place the stone from the nest of an owl on the bosom of the sleeping woman, she will babble out in her sleep if she has a lover.
Sources (list of abbreviations)
Auctarium Cavense 65
BRM 4.20.17
KAR 61.22-25
Papyri Graeci Magici 7.411-416
Bibliography
| Reiner 1990, 421-423 | Reiner, Erica. “Nocturnal Talk.” In: T. Abusch, P. Steinkeller (ed.). Lingering over Words. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L. Moran. Harvard Semitic Studies 37. Atlanta: Scholars Press 1990, 412-424. |
| Reiner 1995, 125 | Reiner, Erica. “Astral Magic in Babylonia.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 85.4 (1995) 1-150. [JSTOR (requires subscription)] |
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001329.php
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