PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The apodosis of 32.S.20 adds NA BI ‘that man’, but the two omens are otherwise the same.
• The verb is-sa-la-a’ is the N stem of salā’u, which the CAD translates as either the ingressive of ‘to become ill, to enter a critical stage of an illness’ (CAD S, 96 s.v. salā’u A 1b) or ‘to become depressed, upset’ (CAD S, 97 s.v. salā’u A 2). It is one of two verbs to describe being ill in Akkadian; the other being the more common marāṣu (Stol 2009, 29; CAD M/1, 269 s.v. marāṣu). In commentary texts, the two verbs are often listed as synonyms (De Zorzi 2014, 340 lines 26-27 and 381 56 Apodosi). Indeed in his discussion of the verb salā’u, Stol (2009, 45) shows that in some text genres there are no discernible differences between the verbs. The combined use of marāṣu and salā’u in some omen texts however indicate the two must have had a subtle difference in their meanings, at least in omen texts (Stol 2009, 39). We follow Stol’s (2009, 44) translation of the above apodosis and interpret the N-stem of salā’u to mean a long-lasting or chronic illness, while not excluding the possibility that the verb may mean ‘to enter a critical stage of an illness’. For the most recent edition of the snake omen with an apodosis that includes both marāṣu and salā’u, mentioned in Stol (2009, 39), see 22.16.