From Statue to God: The Opening of the Mouth Ritual

Step-by-step instructions on how to transform a statue into a god are inscribed on this clay handbook for Babylonian priests. Dating from the sixth century B.C.E., the cuneiform inscription was copied by the Babylonian priest Iddina-NabuÆ, whose name appears at the end, from a tablet written by the scribe NabuÆ-etel-ilani for Marduk’s temple in Babylon. The scribe may well have had firsthand knowledge of the ritual. He was the son of an incantation priest who may have taken part in the Washing (or Opening) of the Mouth (Miµs PiÆ) ritual, believed to bring cult statues to life.

The inscription begins:

When you wash the mouth of a god, on a favorable day in the biµt mummi [workshop], you set up two holy-water vessels. (You place) a red cloth in front of the god and a white cloth to the right of the god. For [the purification gods] Ea and Asalluh_i you set up offering-tables.

You perform mouth-washing on that god and for that god you set up an offering table.