Position in chronology
SAA 10 050. Sightings of Mercury are Unpredictable (ABL 0692) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the k]ing, [our] lord: your [servants] Balasî and [Nabû]-ahhe-eriba. [Good he]alth to the king, our [lord]! [May] Nabû and Marduk bless the king, our lord! (9) [Concer]ning the planet Mercury [about which] the king, our lord, [wr]ote to us: "I have heard it [can be seen in B]abylon" — [he who] wrote (this) to the king, our [lord], may really have observed it. His eye, however, must have fallen on it. (r 7) We ourselves have kept watch (but) we have not observed it. [On]e day it might be too early, [anoth]er day it might lie flat (in the horizon). [To see it], our [e]yes sho[uld] (literally) [have f]allen on it. (r 13) (Remainder lost)
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334490/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-[ni] / [ARAD-MEŠ]-ka mba-la-si-⸢i⸣ / [mdPA]—PAB-MEŠ—SU / [lu] ⸢DI⸣-mu a-na LUGAL / [EN]-ni / [d]PA dAMAR.UTU / [a]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL EN-ni / [lik]-ru-bu / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ MUL.UDU.IDIM.GUD.UD / [ša] LUGAL EN-ni / [iš]-pur-an-na-ši-ni / [ma-a] ⸢šu⸣-ú / [ina] ⸢KÁ*⸣.DINGIR*.RA / [IGI-mar] ⸢as*⸣-se-me / [ša] a-na LUGAL / [EN]-ni iš-pur-an-ni / [ina] ket-ti-šú / [is]—su-ri e-ta-mar / ⸢IGI⸣.2-šú…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334490.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334490). 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/P334490/.
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