Position in chronology
SAA 10 058. Omens from Birds and a Request (ABL 0353) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Balasî. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (5) Concerning the raven about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, (here are the relevant omens): (7) If a raven brings something into the house of a man, the said man will obtain something that does not belong to him. (11) If a falcon or a raven drops something it carries into the house of a man, (or) according to a variant, before a man, the said house will have išdihu. Išdihu (means) profit. (17) If a bird carries flesh, a bird, or anything, and drops it into the…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334229/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mba-la-si-i / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / dPA dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lik-ru-bu ina UGU Ú.⸢TÈ⸣.MUŠEN / ša LUGAL be-[lí iš]-pur-an-ni / 1 Ú.TÈ.MUŠEN mì-im-ma / ana É NA ú-še-ri-ib / LÚ BI mì-im-ma la šu-a-tú / ŠU-su KUR-ád / 1 ŠÚR.DÙ.MUŠEN lu a-ri-bu.MUŠEN / mì-im-ma ša na-šu-ú / a-na É NA šá-ni-iš / ana IGI NA id-di / É BI iš-di-ḫu TUK-ši / iš-di-ḫu né-me-lu / 1…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334229.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334229). 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/P334229/.
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