Mediating Heterogeneity. Analogical Reasoning in Mesopotamian Therapies for Treating Bile Disorders and Jaundice

The paper focuses on the analysis of the principles of analogical thinking within Akkadian therapeutic literature, specifically exploring the intimate connection between “words” (incantation) and “actions” (rituals and prescriptions). By concentrating on therapies for treating biliary disorders and jaundice found in the third tablet of the section Šumma amēlu suāla maruṣ (lit. “If a man suffers from phlegm”) of the first-millennium Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia, alongside Akkadian and Sumerian Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian incantations, the study uncovers consistent patterns in therapeutic analogical strategies. The paper emphasizes the complex relationship between the metaphorical incantatory language by which analogies are expressed and the materia medica prescribed in the prescriptions. Semantic, phonetic, and graphic analogies contribute to a process of analogical recognition between pathologies, the physiological processes, and materia medica. Through a comparative analysis of Mesopotamian therapeutic sources, this study elucidates certain strategies of analogical thinking, revealing it as a foundational aspect of the mindset and worldview of the erudite scribes responsible for composing the core works of Mesopotamian therapeutics.