PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• See also 32.S.49; it only differs slightly from the above omen. The Sultantepe apodosis reads ina É NA BI ‘in that man’s house’. Also the verb was omitted from the apodosis—whether this is an ancient scribal mistake or an omission on the modern copyist’s part is unknown.
• The sign KA, read here as GÙ, is ambiguous. We follow KAL 1 (16-17 Vs. 46 A46) which reads the sign as GÙ and translates (16-17, 72 Rs. 46)

Wenn eine Eidechse in einen Topf fällt: (Trauer)geschrei wird im Haus des Mannes vorhanden sein.

If a City 2 (200, *32.107’ C r.46’), however, reads the sign as INIM ‘word; affair’ and translates (181, *32.107’)

         If a lizard falls into a bowl, there will be a (business or legal) affair in the man’s house.

There is an attestation of INIM with the verb ibbašši in an Old Babylonian physiognomic omen (YOS 10 54 r 16), which the CAD A/2, 42 s.v. amātu 6a 10’ translates as ‘there will be an affair’ but also lists as “obscure”. Other omens in which a lizard falls into a pots are negative, see for example 32.A.80’. We therefore read GÙ as rigmu ‘voice, sound; noise; lamentation’, among other acoustic meanings.

The term rigmu is vague and ambiguous in Akkadian—its connotations range from a generic term for noise, to voices (human, animal and divine) as well as to the thunder of a storm god (Rendu Loisel 2016a, 189). It can also be the aggressive clamor of enemy armies (CAD R, 331 s.v. rigmu 2, with examples from omens), but it can also refer to wailing or lamentation (CAD R, 333 s.v. rigmu 5, also with example from omens). While allowing for the possibility of a legal affair occurring in the house, we suggest interpreting the apodosis as likely indicating that distress or lamentation will fall upon the household.