Position in chronology
SAA 13 147. Ištar Has Gone to the Divine ‘Party’ (ABL 0876)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant], Marduk-[...]. [Good health] to the ki[ng, my lord.] May [Aššur,] Sin, [Šamaš, Nabû], and Mar[duk] very greatly bless the king, [my lord]. (8) The king, my lord, knows that Ištar of Arbela is powerful. She has gone up to the divine 'party' in Arbela. I am holding a horse for the chief victualler, but he refuses to accept it from me, [nor will he allow] me to transfer it. (r 1) [...] is passing by on account of it. (r 2) They should take a horse from the palace and give me a sealed order concerning the chief victualler (to the effect) that he should give me sacrificial bread, lest Ištar kill me. (r 9) They have made me slip from the grasp of the king, my lord. (But) [if] I am still living, I will revere the [ki]ng, my lord.
Source: Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P334603/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / [ARAD-ka m]dAMAR.UTU—[x x] / [lu DI-mu] a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / [aš-šur d]30 ⸢d⸣[UTU] / [dPA d]⸢AMAR⸣.[UTU] / a-na LUGAL [EN-ia] / a—dan-niš lik-ru-bu / LUGAL be-lí ú-⸢da⸣ / ki-i d15 šá URU.arba-ìl / dan-na-at-ú-ni / qa-ri-tu ina URU.arba-ìl / te-ta-li-a / a-na LÚ.GAL—da-ni-bat / ANŠE.KUR.RA ú-ka-la / ⸢la⸣ im-ma-gúr / [la] ⸢i⸣-ma-ḫar-an-ni / [la ú-še]-taq-an-ni / [x x] ina…
Scholarly note
Letter from a temple priest or ritual official to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Steven Cole & Peter Machinist (SAA 13, 1998). ORACC text P334603.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Steven W Cole, Peter Machinist, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (State Archives of Assyria, 13), 1998. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko and Silvie Zamazalová, 2011-13, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P334603/..
Translation excerpted from Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P334603/.
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