Position in chronology
SAA 04 276. Will Assurbanipal Recover from his Illness? (AGS 147) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Šamaš, great, lord, [give me a firm positive answer] to what I am [asking you]! (2) Assurbanipal, king of [Assyria, who is now] again afflicted with [..., and (whom) your great] divinity [knows] — (3) [in accordance with the command of your great divinity], Šamaš, great lord, and [your favorable] decisions, will Assurbanipal, king of [Assyria], recover, get well, be saved, [rescued, extricated from his illness]? (7) Does your great [divinity] know it? Are the re[covery and] rescue of Assurbanip[a]l, king of [As]syria, from this illness which afflicts him, decreed and confirmed in a…
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/P238962/
Why it matters
Transliteration
dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-[šal-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-an-ni] / mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ—DUMU.UŠ LUGAL [KUR—AN.ŠÁR šá i-na-an-na GIG x x x] / is-saḫ-raš-šum-ma DINGIR-ut-[ka GAL-ti ZU-ú GIM KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti] / dUTU EN GAL-ú u EŠ.BAR-[ka šal-mu EN—MU.MU NE-i] / mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ—DUMU.UŠ LUGAL KUR—[AN.ŠÁR i-na GIG-šú an-na-a šá i-saḫ-ra-šú] / TIN-ṭu SILIM-mu KAR-ir [uš-te-zi-bi uš-te-ṣi-i] / [DINGIR]-ut-ka GAL-ti ZU-e…
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 P238962.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238962). 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/P238962/.
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