Disease Demons & Doctors: Ancient Mesopotamia
- Sylvia Rose
- Dec 25, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 30
Incense burns smoky over hot coals. Voices rise in prayers, incantations and songs. Noise, wailing, howling, clapping, stamping, bells, drumming can discomfort a diabolical disease demon enough to make it depart.
Such traditions are still in practice today. They include the noisy revelry, parades and masks of celebrations like Chinese New Year, when firecrackers and drums frighten evil spirits, and Carnival in the West.
Exorcism is a healing ritual in ancient Mesopotamia. It's performed by a class of physician specializing in magic and demonology. Demons can cause ailments from ear infections to epilepsy (benu or bennu).
They can make a person waste away or inflict tumors on the body. Illness is caused by one or more demons inhabiting a physical body, and/or cursing the stricken one with disease.
Demons can also cause drought, blight or fires. They may be responsible for undesirable character traits such as laziness or disrespect. They can cause panic attacks, anxiety, insanity, melancholy and sleep disorders.
Disease demons live in the Underworld, Kur, along with other demons such as the galla and evil udug. They include Namtar, the sukkal of Queen Ereshkigal of Kur, and the hideous demon Asag.
There are three recognized types of doctors in ancient Mesopotamia. The asu treat illness or injury objectively, using plants or medical methods known to get results.
The asipu are the exorcists, using magic and supernatural methods such as demonic communication. The barû (baru) or seers are experts in divination. A combination of practitioners and techniques is often used to identify and treat disease.
Asipu healers of disease are specially trained to deal with demons. They know which demons are associated with which illness.
Cures, spells, incantations and treatments are documented, collected and studied. It takes many years for a person to become an exorcist.
Some herbs and plants have curative properties against demon infestation. They might be taken with other ingredients, chewed, brewed, burned, inhaled or used in potions, oils, ointments, enemas or poultice.
Mesopotamian doctors also have a good understanding of gynecology and women's health. They know how to perform abortions and also can be consulted on matters of male and female fertility.
Some ancient herbal remedies include blackseed, nettle and chamomile. Hallucinogens such as fly agaric and opium taken medicinally. The saliva of dogs, now proven to have anti-bacterial properties, is used to heal wounds.
An asipu healer can either identify the disease demon on sight, or use questions or psychic insight to find out who it is. Certain charms, herbal preparations, incense or deific protections are then recommended.
Cryptic markings are made and figurines carefully placed. The exorcist might fall into a trance, journey outside the body or dance into a frenzy to communicate with the essential demon and drive it out.
Illness is usually treated with a combination of methods. They include herbal or other natural medicine, chants and incantations, prayers, drums and noise, dance or rhythmic ritual body movements. Surgery if used is part a wholistic treatment rather than a separate procedure.
According to the medical tablet for bennu, treatment involves wearing a leather amulet and breathing in fumes from a specially formulated incense, charred over coals. Shulpae, consort of mountain mother Ninhursag, is the entity associated with bennu.
While most of Shulpae's activities are benign, bennu is among the most feared diseases of the ancient world. Shulpae is said to act under instruction from the Moon God, Sin.
Like priests, physicians work at temples and have special privileges; priests may also be doctors. Doctors shave their heads, or half, to indicate their esteemed rank. The different types of doctor, banu, asu and asipu, are equally respected.
The patient is brought to the temple, though physicians sometimes make house calls. The doctor carries tools of the trade. Ancient Mesopotamia has specialist doctors, dentists, surgeons and veterinarians.
Women can be doctors but evidence of female doctors is slim. It's thought women take more of a healing role in the 24th century BCE, less by the 18th, when the Code of Hammurabi systemizes medical practices.
Easing childbirth is considered a joint venture between healers, with the asipu opening channels with magic and incantations. The šabsūtu or midwife takes charge of the final stages of childbirth and the actual birth.
The Mesopotamians know the value of medical cleanliness and hygiene. They even use liquid soap. A person has a far better chance of surviving minor surgery than in 19th century AD Europe, when hospitals are places of suffering and death.
Prescriptions of natural products are given by Mesopotamian physicians, often ground and mixed by the doctor in the presence of the patient. Dentistry is unpleasant.
According to the prevailing belief, a toothache is caused by the tooth worm. After its creation by the gods, this nasty worm refuses any food except the blood from teeth.
A dentist recites the incantation for removal of the tooth worm. The procedure then includes treatment of the tooth with herbs, or pulling out the tooth while calling on the gods to defeat the tooth worm.
While the art of dentistry is sporadic at the time, the latter treatment seems to have been effective. Tooth extraction is a fairly common dental procedure in the ancient world.
A man named Urlugaledinna lives in Mesopotamia c. 3000 BCE. He's renowned far and wide as an expert at healing animals. As the world's first vet, Urlugaledinna receives the title “father of veterinarians.”
READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series
READ: Reiker For Hire - Victorian Detective Murder Mysteries