Position in chronology
SAA 10 072. An Ignoramus Sights Venus (ABL 1132+) [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] bless the king, my [lord]! (6) [He who] wrote to the king, my lord, "The planet Venus is visible, it is visible [in the month Ad]ar (XII)," is a vile man, an ignoramus, a cheat! [And he who] wrote to the king, my lord, "Venus is [...] rising in the constellation A[ries]," [does] not [speak] the truth (either). Venus is [not] yet visible! (15) Why does one so [deceitf]ully send such (a report) to the ki[ng, my lo]rd? "Venus is stable in the mor[ning]": (this) signifies…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334745/
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 / [ša a]-na LUGAL EN-ia iš-pur-an-ni / [ma-a] ⸢MUL⸣.dil-bat nam-rat / [ina ITI].⸢ŠE⸣ nam-rat / [LÚ].qal-lu-lu LÚ.sa-ku-ku / ⸢LÚ*⸣.par-ri-ṣu / šu-ú / [ša] ⸢a⸣-na LUGAL EN-ia iš-pur-[an-ni] / [ma-a] ⸢MUL⸣.dil-bat ina ŠÀ MUL.⸢LÚ*⸣.[ḪUN.GÁ] / [x x] KUR-ma la-a ket-⸢tú*⸣ [ši-i]…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334745.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334745). 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/P334745/.
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