Text
This Mandean magical text invokes the father Bel and speaks about his royal staff in two parallel passages.
Shafta ḏ Pishra ḏ Ainia:
When their father Bel took water and threw it on his head, advanced, threw on his teeth (?) and took a crown and set it on his head, a mulberry (or: pastoral) staff in his hand, with a shield on his fore-arm; all was in perfect order. … The crown shook and fell from his head and the armour fell from his shoulder, the mulberry staff fell from his hand, and his head was confused and he fell on his bed (by) the snare which She (= Eye) wove upon him. And She rose and strayed amongst the Seven Planets. When they put their crowns on their heads and hung armour on their shoulders the mulberry staff fell from their hands and the Fatebringers, all of them, were in their perfection. The mulberry staff fell from their hands and their heads were confused and they fell on their couches (by) the spell which she wove upon them. And she rose (and met) them in the sea (or: great lake) when the water was high, and water flowed into it, and the spring herbage, fruits and grapes and trees that were by it flourished.
“Go! pronounce this saying upon Bel, my father, that he may take his crown, and set it on his head, and may take his armour and hang it on his shoulder, and a mulberry staff and grasp it in his hand and arrange the whole world in perfection.” And he said to him: “Go, pronounce this saying upon the seven Planets, and they shall take their crowns and set them on their heads and shall take their armour and hang it on their shoulders, and the mulberry staff and grasp it with their hands and order the whole world in perfection. Go, pronounce this saying upon the sea, when it is full of water and fishes and dolphins go about in it, so that spring herbage, fruits, grapes, and trees may flourish over it.
Source (list of abbreviations)
Shafta ḏ Pishra ḏ Ainia
Bibliography
| Drower 1937, 597-598, 601 | Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Their cults, customs, magic, legends, and folklore. London: Clarendon Press 1937. |
Amar Annus
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