How to marry a disease: epidemics, contagion, and a magic ritual against the 'hand of the ghost'.

To test whether the Babylonians had a 'rational' explanation of contagion, some letters from Mari mentioning epidemics and contagious diseases are studied within the wider context of Babylonian medicine. Descriptions of similar cases are adduced from other cuneiform sources. In particular, one later magical text from Boğazköy with instructions to marry a doll to an illness demon shows striking similarities with the terminology of the Mari letters. This points toward a magico-religious concept of contagiousness in which disease can be transmitted intentionally, or accidentally leap from one individual who has incurred the wrath of a god to an unwary other person.