Position in chronology
SAA 04 317. Query Concerning an Illness of Assurbanipal (PRT 106) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) The 'station' is present. If the 'paths' are two, and they lie separately: change of mind, change of spirit. The expedition you have planned will collapse and you will undertake another. The plans of kings in chamber will come to naught, and they will conceive others. (5) If you make an extispicy for the practice of medicine, the physician shall not touch the patient: the diviner shall not make a prognosis. (7) A deceitful omen. (8) A bifurcation faces in its middle the gall bladder. If the 'well-being' is like the HAL-sign: diminution. (9) The 'path' on the left of the gall bladder and…
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/P336357/
Why it matters
Transliteration
BE NA GAR GÍR-ma a-ḫe-e ŠUB-MEŠ / nu-kúr GALGA MÌN-e KU.KU KASKAL tak-pu-du / ŠUB-ma MAN-tim-ma DU-ak LUGAL-MEŠ ina UKKIN / INIM-MEŠ-šú-nu ŠUB-MEŠ-ma šá-na-tim-ma TUŠ.A-MEŠ / BE-ma ana DÙ-eš a-su-ti DÙ-ma LÚ.A.ZU ana GIG / ŠU.2-su la ub-bal LÚ.ḪAL ME.A NU GAR-an / IZI.GAR tas-ri-ir-ru / ⸢BE⸣ PA ina MURUB₄-šú ZÉ IGI BE SILIM GIM ḪAL tam-ṭa-a-ti / BE GÍR 150 ZÉ ŠUB—AŠ.TE GAR-MEŠ MÁŠ SILIM-im / BE…
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 P336357.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336357). 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/P336357/.
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