Esarhaddon's Prayer in the Inscription AsBbA as Related to the mīs pî Ritual

Abstract

The prayer of Esarhaddon, incorporated in the inscription AsBbA, is the first prayer in an Assyrian royal inscription that is presented as a verbatim citation. The aim of this paper is to delineate the historiographical background for this innovation in a genre usually described as routine and formalistic. By examining descriptions of prayers said to have been recited by the king in Assyrian royal inscriptions, I analyze Esarhaddon's prayer from the aspects of its content, context, and possible linkage to prayers external to the royal inscriptions. Specifically, I examine the possible relation between the prayer in this inscription and the mīs pî ritual performed during the last phases of the process of making a divine image. This comprehensive analysis suggests that the king's prayer had been part of an early stage of such a ritual and was available to the authors of the Esarhaddon inscription.