Position in chronology
SAA 10 188. The Ghost of the Queen (ABL 0614) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed or too fragmentary for translation) (r 1) [The crown prince] explained [it to] my [... as follows]: (r 3) "Aššur and Šamaš ordained me to be the crown prince of Assyria because of her (= the dead queen's) righteousness." (And) her ghost blesses him in the same degree as he has revered the ghost: "May his descendants rule over Assyria!" (r 9) Fear of the gods creates kindness, fear of the infernal gods returns life. Let the [king, my] lord, give the order (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/P334426/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x] LUGAL / [x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢ši⸣-i / [x x x x x x x x x an]-⸢ni⸣-e / [x x x x x x x x x x]-MEŠ / [x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢te⸣-em-ma / [x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢ma⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x] UD-MEŠ / [x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x]-ia ú-⸢saḫ*⸣-kim* / ⸢ma⸣-a ina ke-nu-ti-šá aš-šur dšá-maš / a-na DUMU—LUGAL-ú-te KUR—aš-šur.KI / iq-ṭi-bu-ú-ni e-ṭém-ma-šá / ⸢i⸣-kar-rab-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 P334426.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334426). 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/P334426/.
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