Position in chronology
SAA 10 067. Conjunction of Venus and Mercury (ABL 0647) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Nabû-[ahhe-eriba]. Good health to [the king, my lord]! May Nabû and Marduk bl[ess the king], my lord! (6) If it [suits the king], the apotropaic ritual [against evil] of any kind shou[ld be performed], and [the interpretation] of the observ[ation] of J[upiter] and Me[rcury] which, in the same [day], came forth in succession, should be written in (the text). It is said as follows: (r 1) "If the star of Marduk is black, in that year the as[akku]-disease [will rage (in the country)]." (r 4) They [are at a distance] and will keep away from each other; the…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334448/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL [EN-ia] / ARAD-ka mdPA—[PAB-MEŠ—SU] / lu DI-mu a-⸢na⸣ [LUGAL EN-ia] / dPA dAMAR.UTU [a-na LUGAL] / EN-ia lik-[ru-bu] / šum-ma ina ⸢IGI⸣ [LUGAL ma-ḫi-ir] / NAM.BÚR.⸢BI⸣ [ḪUL] / me-me-ni ⸢lu*⸣ [e-pi-iš] / ša ta-mar*-[a-ti] / ša MUL.⸢SAG⸣.[ME.GAR] / ša MUL.⸢UDU*⸣.[IDIM.GUD.UD] / ša ina ŠÀ 01-⸢en⸣ [UD-me] / da-rat a-⸢ḫe*⸣-[e-iš] / uṣ-ṣu-u-⸢ni⸣ [pi-šìr-šú-nu] / ina ŠÀ-bi liš-ṭu-[ru] / a-ki…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334448.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334448). 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/P334448/.
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