Sofferenza, malessere e disgrazia. Metafore del dolore e senso del male nell'opera paleo-babilonese ‘Un uomo e il suo dio’: un approccio interdisciplinare

The Old-Babylonian text “A man and his god” has enjoyed a wide reputation for its many parallels with the biblical story of Job, and has been the subject of accurate philological analysis. This composition describes the suffering and pain of desperate man calls his God for healing. The aim of this work is to show how you can apply to the Mesopotamian literary texts dealing with the issue of suffering, pain and discomfort-disgrace, the theoretical and methodological tools of medical anthropology. An anthropological approach to the problem of illness in Mesopotamia can understand, in a deeper sense, the symbolic, socio-cultural and political complexity. The essay provides much food for thought on the concept of sickness and the body in the Old-Babylonian Mesopotamia. The affliction of the protagonist is both physical and mental. The words of the poem does not refer only and exclusively to the sphere of physical suffering. The verbs are used in their more general semantic value, showing a man debilitated, helplessly, the victim of an imbalance, which upsets not only the physical and psychological well-being, but also social relations. The pains are part of a broad category which is that of misfortune. Therefore, there is a clear distinction between the evils that affect physically and emotionally man and the events of the most varied nature, which affect his difficult life. The ignorance of the divine will seems to be the human condition. The miserable situation of the sufferer is determined by an inscrutable divine decision.