Bīt rimki, “House of Ablution” or "Bath-house", is an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

n prophylactic ritual and accompanying incantation series, recorded on seven or more tablets, the first of which describes the actual performance of the ritual. Its purpose was to cleanse the person of the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n king, and his household, of the evils portended by the inauspicious sign of a lunar eclipse, witchcraft, ritual abuse, etc. The correspondence of

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his ...

with his priests Adad-šumu-uṣur, Urad-Ea, Marduk-šākin-šumi, and Nabû-nāṣir shows that he was subjected to this ceremony on four separate occasions, while masquerading as a "farmer", in an elaborate substitute-king ritual. The Assyrian king of

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

, Šamaš-šum-ukin, endured two such rituals where fresh copies of the incantation tablets were laboriously prepared. It seems likely that the ceremony lasted seven days.

The ritual

The

Šamaš Utu (dUD "Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. ...

cycle of ''bīt rimki'' is a group of seven themed “houses”, or perhaps more properly “stations”, at each of which a pair of prayers, a bilingual '' ki’utu kam'' (invocation of Šamaš) recited by an '' āšipu'', "exorcist", at daybreak, a '' šu’illa'' (prayer of lifted hands), recited by the king – and the ritual action (offerings to appease a deity, '' takpirtu'' "purification ritual", or apotropaic rite), to accompany the incantations takes place. The king passed between each station of the temporary fabrication called ''bīt rimki'', probably a reed-built structure, was ritually bathed and dressed in fresh clothes while passing a series of evils on to figurines representing his persecutors, the demons who have contaminated him, dousing them with wash water or spittle. Finally, he emerged from the structure with his priest – purified, reborn, and ready to resume his monarchical office. The incantations prescribed in the ritual tablet included a universal ''

namburbi The NAM-BÚR-BI are magical texts which take the form of incantations (Akkadian: ''namburbȗ''). They were named for a series of prophylactic Babylonian and Assyrian rituals to avert inauspicious portents before they took on tangible form. At the ...

'' to avert inauspicious portents, and several '' ušburrudûs'' to dissolve sorcery. Although all exemplars of this ritual have their origin in Assyrian courtly compilation, it was composed from material of

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n source material.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bit rimki Akkadian literature