Position in chronology
SAA 04 187. Should Assurbanipal Take a Medication? (AGS 144) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Should Assurbanipal, the crown prince of the] Succession Palace, [drink this drug which] is placed [before] your great [div]inity, [and in drinking this drug will he] be rescued and spared? (4) [Will he live and get well? Will he ..., be s]aved and escape? [Will the illness of] his [body] be released? Will it leave (him)? Does your great divinity know it? (6) [Is the res]cue, survival [of Assurbanipal, crown prince of the Suc]ces[sion Palace], by drinking this drug, [decreed and confirmed in a favorable case, by the command of your great divinity], Šamaš, great…
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/P336112/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[mdaš-šur—DÙ—DUMU.UŠ DUMU—LUGAL šá] É—re-du-⸢ú⸣-[ti] / [šam-mu an-na-a šá i-na IGI] ⸢DINGIR⸣-ti-ka GAL-ti GAR-un ⸢li-il⸣-[ti-ma] / [i-na šá-qé-e šam-me an-na-a i]-šet-i KAR-ri TIN-⸢ṭu⸣ / [i-šal-li-mì i-x-šá-la uš-te]-zi-bi uš-te-ṣi-⸢i⸣ / [x x x x x x GIG SU]-šú DU₈-a È-a DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti ZU-e / [x x x x x x x x šu]-⸢zu⸣-ub-šú šá-lam ZI-MEŠ-šú / [šá mdaš-šur—DÙ—DUMU.UŠ DUMU—LUGAL šá…
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 P336112.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336112). 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/P336112/.
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