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=> The ritual of mouth washing
| The ritual of mouth washing |
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Posted by
Tiglath
(Guest)
davidchibo@hotmail.com
- Thursday, June 24 2004, 15:04:18 (CEST) from  Australia -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
In both Egypt and Babylon, the cult statue was animated by means of a ceremony called "opening (or washing) the mouth". According to Morenz, this was "a ritual...performed on the statues while they were still in the sculptor’s workshop..., as a result of which the work of human hands was thought to come alive"14. Such a belief is reflected in a text in the British Museum relating how an image of the sun god Shamash was remade at the command of Nabu-appla-iddina (885-852 BCE): "...he carefully prepared the image of Shamash, the great lord...he washed his mouth and he (i.e. Shamash) took up his dwelling (sc. in the statue)" (BM 91000 col. iv. 20-28). This belief in the "living" nature of the statue is reflected in this particular text by the lavish gifts of food (cols. iv. 1.47–v. 1.7) and clothes (cols. v. 39–vi. 13) given to the image by Nabu-apla-iddina15. In the same context, a hymn from the time of Ashurbanipal deals with the animation of a statue of the moon-god: You day on which a god was formed, a pure image perfected, You day on which a god was made manifest unto all countries... ...(Yet) this new moon cannot — not having undergone the rite of mouth washing — Smell incense, eat food, drink water --------------------- |
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