Nocturnal Transgressions

Abstract This paper discusses the idiom maldī erši … etēqu “to cross the edge of the bed of …”, primarily known from the incantation ša maldī eršīya ītiqu , which is attested on numerous amulets and in the series Ḫulbazizi from the first millennium BCE. It examines textual evidence found in legal documents and letters from the Middle Babylonian period, where an abbreviated form of the idiom is used, implying an act of illegal sexual transgression ( maldī … etēqu ). It will be argued that the idiom carries the same meaning in the incantation ša maldī eršīya ītiqu , where it denotes the demon as a possible succubus or incubus.