Position in chronology
SAA 10 051. Mistaking Mercury for Venus (ABL 0618) [from astrologers]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 10(1) To the ki[ng, my lord]: your servant [Balasî]. Good health [to the king, my lord]! May Nabû and Marduk bl[ess the king], my lord! (6) Concerning the planet [Venus] about which the king, my lord, [wrote to me: "I am] told that it has [become visible]" — (10) the man who wrote (thus) to the king, [my lord], is in (complete) ignorance. He does not k[now] the [...], the cycle [...], (or) the (synodic) revoluti[ons of Venus]. (17) (Break) (19) Venus is not y[et] vis[ible]. Tonight, as I am sending [this] message to the king, [my] lord, we [see] only Merc[ury]; we do not [see] Venus. Presently…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 10 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Transliteration
a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / ARAD-ka [mba-la-si-i] / lu DI-mu [a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / dPA dAMAR.UTU [a-na LUGAL] / EN-ia lik-[ru-bu] / ina UGU MUL.[dil-bat] / ša LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣ [iš-pur-an-ni] / ma-a iq-ṭi-[bu-u-ni] / ma-a it-[ta-mar] / ša a-na LUGAL [EN-ia] / iš-pu-ra-[an-ni] / ina la mu-da-[nu-te] / šu*-ú ri*-[x x x] / a-da-an-nu [x x x x] / da-a.a-la-[te ša MUL.dil-bat] / la ú-[da] / i-ga-ra-⸢at⸣ [x x x]…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334428.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P334428). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334428/.
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