抄録
Some Texts in which “the gods of the night” (ilani mušiti) appear are known to us. They were written between the Old and New Babylonian periods, not only in Babylonia and Assyria but also in Anatolia and Syria. These are astral gods in addition to the stars (kakkabanu), the three regions of stars (šut Anu, Ea and Enlil), and the many constellations.
We chose a text where “the gods of the night” are invoked as judges (dajjan kinatim/kittim) in a religious court, in order to dicide cases occurring in the dark night, when Šamaš is asleep after having worked as judge all the day long.
Our text is not just a prayer written in private nor is it written from the literary point of view. Our text has a “Sitz im Leben” in the religious court of Old Babylonia, that is in official religion. Our prayer is a “Night Office” attached to the trial (têrtu) that is to be held soon after—a counterpart to the daytime office.
The priest (bâru) must experience the judgement of “the gods of the night” and give account of that to the plaintiff (alik urhim) and also to the defendant (ša dinim), if the defendant is human. Our text is the prototype of prayers to “the gods of the night” which have been handed down with differences in various places and ages and included into canonical series like maqlû, namburbû and so on. In these prayers “the gods of the night” have also fulfilled an apotropaic role against evil destiny.
