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Old Assyrian Incantation against Lamaštu:
She is (number?) one, she is holy … offspring of a god, daughter of Anu: for her ill will, her base counsel, Anu her father dashed her down from heaven to earth, for her ill will, her disruptive counsel. Her hair is loose, her private parts stripped. She goes straight to the godless man.
Homer, Iliad 19.91-106, 126-131:
It is God that brings all things to their issue. Eldest daughter of Zeus is Ate that blinds all - a power fraught with bane; delicate are her feet, for it is not upon the ground that she fars, but she walks over the heads of men, bringing men to harm, and this one or that she ensnares. Aye, and on a time she blinded Zeus, albeit men say that he is the greatest among men and gods; yet even him Hera, that was but a woman, beguiled in her craftiness on the day when Alcmene in fair-crowned Thebe was to bring forth the mighty Heracles. Zeus verily spoke vauntingly among all the gods: ‘Hearken unto me, all you gods and goddesses, that I may speak what the heart in my breast bids me. This day shall Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, bring to the light a man that shall be the lord of all them that dwell round about, even one of the race of those men who are of me by blood.’ … Forthwith he seized Ate by her bright-tressed head, wroth in his soul, and sware a mighty oath that never again unto Olympus and the starry heaven should Ate come, she that blinds all. So said he, and whirling her in his hand flung her from the starry heaven, and quickly she came to the tilled fields of men.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Homer, Iliad 19.91-106
Homer, Iliad 19.126-131
Incantation against Lamaštu (Old Assyrian)
Bibliography
| West 1997, 390 | West, Martin L. The East Face of Helicon. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1997. |
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001261.php
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