Position in chronology
SAA 10 061. One Should not Think on an ‘Evil Day’ (ABL 0352) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Balasî. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! May Aššur, Bel and Nabû give happiness and joy to the king, my lord! (11) The moon has taken an auspicious aspect: it is the beginning of the month. (r 2) [Con]cerning what the king, my lord, wrote to me — today is an 'evil day,' I shall write (about it) tomorrow. Thinking about these matters today is not good; I shall write tomorrow.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334228/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mba-la-si-i / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL / EN-ia dPA dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lik-ru-bu / daš-šur EN dPA / ṭu-ub ŠÀ-bi / ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lid-di-nu d30 / a-na SIG₅ / pa-ni-šú is-sa-ka-an / ⸢SAG*⸣.DU ITI / ⸢šu⸣-ú / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ ša LUGAL / [be]-lí iš-pur-an-ni / [UD]-⸢mu⸣ an-ni-i-u / ⸢la*⸣-mì-i-ni / ina ši-i-a-ri / a-šap-pa-ra / di-ib-bi an-nu-ti / UD-mu an-ni-i-ú / a-na ḫa-sa-si / la ṭa-a-ba / ina ši-i-a-ri / a-šap-pa-ra
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334228.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334228). 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/P334228/.
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