In the Babylonian magico-medical tradition, Šulak is the Lurker of the bathroom or the demon of the privy.
Powers
Šulak appears in the Babylonian Diagnostic Handbook (Tablet XXVII), in which various diseases are described and attributed to the "hand" of a god, goddess, or spirit. A "Lurker" is a type of demon who lies in wait in places where a potential victim is likely to be alone. Attending to excretory functions or elimination, a man is exposed and hence vulnerable: "Šulak will hit him!" A type of "stroke" (mišittu) may be meant, and a demon referred to as "The Hitter" or "Striker" elsewhere in the handbook is likely to be Šulak identified by an epithet. A much earlier reference to this demon is found in a Hittite diagnostic text.
The "demon of the privy" appears also in the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 70a): “The Rabbis taught: On coming from a privy a man should not have sexual intercourse till he has waited long enough to walk half a mil, because the demon of the privy is with him for that time; if he does, his children will be epileptic. ”
This law is not included in the Mishneh Torah. The lavatory demon takes the form of a goat in the Talmud (Shabbat 67a, Berachot 62a). Stroke and epilepsy were closely related in ancient medicine.
Theories about origin and existence
Šulak seems to be a forerunner of the type of "unclean spirit" that in the early Christian era was regarded as causing both physical and spiritual affliction.
Sources
- Geller, M.J. "West Meets East: Early Greek and Babylonian Diagnosis." In Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine, Studies in Ancient Medicine 27 (Brill, 2004), p. 19 online.
- Rosner, Fred. Encyclopedia of Medicine in the Bible and the Talmud. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, p. 96 online.
- Stol, Marten. Epilepsy in Babylonia. Brill, 1993, pp. 17, 71, and 76 online.
- Stol, Marten. Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting. Brill, 2000, p. 167 online.