Position in chronology
SAA 04 217. Fragment of a Query on Behalf of Esarhaddon (AGS 084) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Is it decreed and confirmed by the command of your great divinity? Will he who can see, see it]? Will he who can hear, hear it? (2) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good, be it] faulty, (and that) the day is overcast. (3) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or] blocked [the way of the] sacrificial [sheep]. (4) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and] made it unclean. (5) [Disregard that an unclean person] has performed [extispicy in this place]. (r 1)…
Source: Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P237210/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[ina KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti qa-bi-i ku-un-ú IGI-ru IGI-ra ŠE].⸢GA⸣-ú ŠE-e / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mu NE-i GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu]-⸢ú⸣ UD ŠÚ-pu / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu a-na IGI SISKUR].SISKUR GIL-MEŠ / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ-ma] ú-le-ʾu-ú / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ] MÁŠ-ú / [e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú] ⸢ḫa⸣-ṭu-ú /…
Scholarly note
Extispicy query addressed to Šamaš, the sungod and patron of divination, edited by Ivan Starr (SAA 4, 1990). The king asks the deity to render a yes/no verdict on a political or military question. ORACC text P237210.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237210). source
Translation excerpted from Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P237210/.
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