Stone, plant and tree (1)

Text
The lists of stones and other objects of the material world go back to the very origin of cuneiform writing. One can note that the later handbooks characterized by their keyword šikinšu have parallels in the lexical series Harra = hubullu only on tablets 14 (snakes and other animals), 16 (stones), and 17 (plants). It is therefore significant that the same three kingdoms of nature have a role to play in Babylonian astral magic and also in Hellenistic magic. The relevant part of Hellenistic magic is described in the work called Cyranides. The first book of Cyranides contains twenty-four alphabetically ordered chapters. In each of these are enumerated, both individually and in combination, the magical-medical properties of four entities which share a common letter, these entities being plant, bird, stone and fish. Each chapter also contains the description of an amulet made of the relevant stone and containing in its design one or more of the other entities. Neither birds nor fish appear in the Babylonian magic, but they share one tablet, Tablet 18 of Harra = hubullu series. Instead of four entities, the Babylonian sources enumerate three only as being pertinent in magic: plants, stones and trees. The references to this practice are rare and often unclear, but the juxtaposition of these three is diagnostic. Trees, plants, and stones were associated also with zodiacal signs in late Babylonian texts as they were in Hellenistic Egypt, and to these entities were sometimes added animals, cities, and excerpts or incipits of mantic material, lists of gods and temples, and others.

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Harra = hubullu 14
Harra = hubullu 16
Harra = hubullu 17
Harra = hubullu 18

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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