Position in chronology
SAA 04 196. Should Prince Assurbanipal Frequent the Holy Places? (AGS 143) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Assurbanip]al, the crown prince o[f the Succession Palace, who for ma]ny [days], month after month, has day and night been moan[ing before your great divinity, O Šamaš, gr]eat [lord, and (whom) your great divinity knows] — (4) [in accordance with the com]mand of your great divinity, Šamaš, great lord, and [your favorable deci]sions, should the subject of this query, Assurbanipal, the crown prince of the [Succession Pal]ace, (6) [b]e it for himself or for his father Esarhaddon, take [the hand of a god, or] the hand of a goddess, or the hand of their (personal) god,…
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/P336111/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[mdaš-šur—DÙ—DUMU].UŠ DUMU—LUGAL ⸢šá⸣ [É—re-du-ti] / [šá x x x x]-MEŠ-ti ITI a-na ITI [i-na ma-ḫar DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU] / [EN] ⸢GAL⸣-ú UD-mu u MI i-nam-⸢zi⸣-[zu-ma DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti ZU-u] / [GIM] ⸢KA⸣ DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU EN GAL-ú ù EŠ.⸢BAR⸣-[ka] / [šal-mu] EN—MU.MU NE-i mdaš-šur—DÙ—DUMU.UŠ DUMU—LUGAL šá ⸢É⸣—[re-du-ti] / [lu]-⸢ú⸣ a-na šá-a-šú lu-ú a-na mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na AD-šú ⸢lu⸣-[ú…
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 P336111.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336111). 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/P336111/.
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