Position in chronology
SAA 10 092. Worshipping Venus (ABL 0045) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) T[o] the king, my lord: your ser[vant] Akkullanu. [G]ood health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (6) It is my duty to praise them; I do it for the sake of the life of the king, my lord. Perhaps the king, my lord, will say, "What is (this) praise?" — it is the spindle (symbol); I carry it three days for Venus. The king, my lord, should know and hear (this, lest) the king, my lord, might say: "Why have I not learned and heard that you have to do (this)?" Now the king should know that I am doing (this).
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333997/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢a⸣-[na] LUGAL EN-ía / ⸢ARAD⸣-ka mak-kul-la-nu / lu-u šul-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / dAG u dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-ru-bu / di-lil-šu-nu ina UGU-ḫi-ía / a-na bu-luṭ ZI-MEŠ-ti / ša LUGAL EN-ía a-da-lal / is—su-ri LUGAL be-lí i-qab-bi / ma-a mi-i-nu di-lil / GIŠ.pi-laq-qu šu-u-tú / a-na ddil-bat a-na-áš-ši / 03 UD-MEŠ-ti / LUGAL be-lí lu ú-di / liš-me / LUGAL be-lí i-qab-bi / ma-a a-ta-a / ki-i a-na e-pa-ši-ka-ni / la-a ú-di la-a áš-me / ú-ma-a LUGAL lu ú-di / ki-i e-pa-áš-u-ni
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333997.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333997). 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/P333997/.
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