Position in chronology
SAA 04 133. Fragment Similar to No. 132 (PRT 058) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... Will it be carried out s]uccessfully? (2) [Does your great divinity] know it? (3) [Is it decreed] and confirmed in a favorable case, b[y the command of your] great [divinity], Šamaš, great lord? [Will he who can s]ee, see it? [Will he who ca]n hear, hear it? (5) [Disre]gard that the ram (offered) to [your] divinity for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty. (Break) (r 1) Be present [in this ram, place (in it) a firm positive answer, favorable designs], favorable, propitious omens by the oracular [command] of your great [divini]ty, [and may I see (them)]. (r 4) [May (this query) go to] your great [divi]nity, [O Šamaš, great lord], and may an oracle be given as an answer.
Source: Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P336349/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[in-né-ep-pu-ú-šu i-šal]-li-i-[mì] / ⸢DINGIR⸣-ut-ka ⸢GAL⸣-[ti] ZU-[e] / i-na SILIM-tim i-[na KA DINGIR-ti-ka] GAL-[ti] / [d]UTU EN GAL-ú [qa-bi-i] ku-un / [IGI]-ru IGI-⸢ra⸣ [ŠE].GA-ú ŠE.GA-[e] / [e]-⸢zib⸣ šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-⸢ti⸣-[ka] ⸢šá⸣ a-na MÁŠ-ri MÁŠ-[ú] / ⸢LAL⸣-ú ḫa-ṭu-[ú] / [i-na ŠÀ UDU.NÍTA an-ni-e] GUB-[za]-am-ma / [an-na GI.NA GIŠ.ḪUR-MEŠ ta]-mit SIG₅-MEŠ SILIM-MEŠ šá SILIM-⸢tim⸣ / [šá KA DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-⸢ti⸣ [šuk-nam-ma lu-mur] / [UGU DINGIR]-ti-ka GAL-[ti dUTU EN GAL-ú lil-lik]-⸢ma⸣ li-tap-pal
Scholarly note
Extispicy query addressed to Šamaš, the sungod and patron of divination, edited by Ivan Starr (SAA 4, 1990). The king asks the deity to render a yes/no verdict on a political or military question. ORACC text P336349.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336349). source
Translation excerpted from Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P336349/.
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