Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 10 224. No Eclipse of the Sun; Petition for Urad-Gula (ABL 0657) [from exorcists]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334457

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To the king, [my lo]rd: your servant Adad-[šumu-uṣur]. Good health to [the king, my] lord! May Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, [Bel], Nabû and Nergal very gr[eatly] bless the [king], my lord! (8) The sun did not make an eclipse, it passed by; Venus will reach Spica; the observation of Mercury is impending; there will be heavy rain and thunder. The king, my lord, should know (this). (16) Nobody has reminded (the king) about Urad-Gula, the servant of the king, my lord. He is dying of a broken heart, and is shattered (from) falling out of the hands of the king, my lord. The king, my lord, has revived many people.

Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334457/

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na LUGAL be-[lí-ia] / ARAD-ka mdIM—[MU—PAB] / lu-u DI-mu a-na [LUGAL] / be-lí-[ia] / daš-šur d30 dUTU [dEN] / dAG dU.GUR a-⸢na⸣ [LUGAL] / be-lí-ia a—dan-niš a—[dan-niš] / lik-ru-bu dUTU AN.MI / la iš-kun us-se-ti-iq / MUL.dil-bat a-na MUL.AB*.SÍN / i-kaš-šad ta-mar-tu / ša dGUD.UD qur-bu / zi-i-nu dan-nu il-lak / dIM GÙ-šú ŠUB-di / LUGAL be-lí lu-u-di / ina UGU mARAD—dgu-la / ARAD ša LUGAL…

Scholarly note

Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334457.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334457). 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/P334457/.

Related tablets

Related sources