Omen 32.A.59
Nicole Lundeen, 2021, "Šumma ālu, Omen 32.A.59", Nicla De Zorzi et al., Bestiarium Mesopotamicum, 2018-2021; accessed 11/20/2024 6:29 p.m. at tieromina.acdh-dev.oeaw.ac.at/omens/Omen-32-A-59/tei
↓ 32.A.59 
VAT 10167   59  DIŠEME.DIRinaŠENMUNUSÙ.TUMUNUSBIMAŠ.TAB.BATUK-šiinaŠÀ.ḪULDU.DU-ak
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  • DIŠEME.DIRinaŠENMUNUSÙ.TUMUNUSBIMAŠ.TAB.BATUK-šiinaŠÀ.ḪULDU.DU-ak
  • šummaṣurāruinaruqqisinništiūlidsinništušīmāšīiraššiinalumun libbiittanallak
  • If a lizard gives birth in a woman's kettle- that woman will have twins; she will go about unhappily.
PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY
  • While children in general have positve associations, twins are more nuanced in terms of a favorable or unfavorable prognosis. Without the mention of gender, as above, the prognosis could be positive, but should the prognosis be for male twins, it is generally unfavorable.[1] The rivalry of two brothers foreshadows negative consequences and in some divinatory series even the downfall of communities (Stol 2000, 208–9; Riemschneider 1970, 20).[2] Therefore the second portion of the apodosis can be seen as clarifying that the first portion is also to be seen as negative. See, however, 32.S.76. The similar omen specifies the woman’s kettle to be copper, and its apodosis omits the second half about the woman going about unhappily. Thus 32.S.76 leaves the possibility open for a positive prognosis.
  • The sign ŠEN ‘kettle’ in the apodosis denotes a “class of metal containers or receptacles, usually made of copper” (Steinkeller 1981, 243). Indeed 32.S.76 specifies a copper kettle, uruduŠEN. The archaic version of the sign ŠEN is a container with the sign A 'water' inside[3] (Guichard and Marti 2013, 62, n. 60). As water is a necessary component of agricultural fecundity and often means semen, the connection between the ŠEN-vessel and a woman’s pregnancy is obvious.

The verbal roots of the Akkadian equivalence ruqqu indicate qualities such as thinness or flatness (see CAD R, 167 s.v. raqāqu). This may indicate a vessel made of metall that has been hammered flat to its limits (Guichard and Marti 2013, 62). Perhaps this is reminiscent of a pregnant woman’s stretched abdomen, especially a woman carrying twins. Ruqqu’s association with thinness and thin passages allows for its use in anatomical terminology, including parts of female reproductive anatomy—either the hymen or the vagina—along with other anatomical parts (Adamson 1990, 30–31). A further connection between women and ŠEN-vessels is the vessel’s use in purification;[4] one of its many uses is for menstruating women to cleanse themselves (Guichard and Marti 2013, 74).

[1] There is a Hittite omen (KUB 43.4 i 1-6) in which a woman who gives birth to twin boys is predicted to be afflicted with an evil illness. The boys however will thrive (Riemschneider 1970, 18–19 Bo 5333). The Hittite omen’s grammar is discussed in Zorman (2017, 255–59).

[2] The omen series Šumma izbu ‘If a malformed birth’ includes omens about twin births with negative prognoses for the entire country. See for example, De Zorzi (2014, 360, Tablet 1 omen 83).

As Stol (2000, 208) notes, the context of conflict and communities calls to mind the conflict between the biblical twins Jacob and Esau or, from Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus.

[3] For sketches, see Krebernik (1998, 279 LAK713) and Steinkeller (1981, 248). See also Steinkeller’s (1984) addendum for a continued discussion on ŠEN as it used in various terminology.

[4] That a ŠEN vessel should be connected with purification is not surprising given that an another reading of the sign ŠEN is ellu ‘pure’, and the sign often appears in literature as a synonym to, or perhaps as a nuanced degree of, words meaning ‘pure’, such as KUG or SIKIL. For a discussion of ŠEN in the context of purity and purification rituals, see (Guichard and Marti 2013, 61–63, 73–77).