PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

The apodosis

• The above omen resembles medical-diagnostic omens from other series: not only because of the illness ‘Hand of Šamaš’ (see below) but also the protasis’s context. At the beginning of the diagnostic omen series SA.GIG (see also the commentary at 32.A.33), the omens prognosing the fate of the patient are based on signs the diagnostician encounters on the way to examining the patient (while walking in the street, for example). The correlations between the animal omens in Šumma ālu and the medical-diagnostic omens have long been recognized. See Heeßel (2001) for an overview.

In medical omens, the enclitic -ma in the apodosis can be used to subordinate the preceding clause with the conjunction ‘if’. See GAG §160 for the grammar and Scurlock and Anderson (2005, xvi) for its translation in medical omens. We have followed Scurlock and Andersen’s suggestion and translated the above apodosis as a conditional prognosis for the sick man.

Diseases in ancient Mesopotamia[1] were often attributed to specific deities or demons with the idiomatic expression ‘Hand of …’. The ‘Hand of Šamaš’ is associated with a number of symptoms such as psoriatic arthritis (Scurlock and Andersen 2005, 255) and, possibly relevant in the above omen, the paralysis or weakness a patient may experience after a seizure (Scurlock and Andersen 2005, 318, 445). It is easy to imagine a stroke patient, being bed-ridden for a year and having consumed all of his amassed wealth, succumbing to his illness in the end. See also the comments on vertigo (protasis) below.

• From the photograph of VAT 10167 r. 23’, the sign read as DAB ‘to seize’ is written as the comparable KU. The sign is read, without comment, as TUŠ and DAB, in KAL 1 (16-17, Rs. 23’ A23’) and If a City 2 (195, *32.22’ C23’), respectively.

For the combination of gišNÁ ‘bed’ and the verb ṣabātu ‘to seize’ in omen apodoses to mean ‘bedridden’, see CAD E, 318 s.v. eršu 1d 2’.

• Manuscript VAT 10167 r. 23’ is damaged after dUTU ‘Šamaš’. KAL 1 (16-17 Rs. 23’ A23’) reads ˹ana˺^? within the damage. We follow KAL 1 but leave the sign in full brackets as it is not legible on the available photograph of the manuscript.

The protasis

• The protasis is replete with repetition and paronomasia. The saḫāru 'to turn, turn around' is repeated twice as is-ḫur.  Even the subsequent sign NIGIN, which we read ilmīšu '(it) encircles him', is a repetition as it can also be used to write the verb saḫāru. The repetition is surely a play on both verbs' meanings. NIGIN can also be read as ṣâdu 'to prowl; to spin, to be subject to vertigo'. Not only do the actions of the lizard in the protasis resemble prowling, but the ancient scribe must have been acutely aware of the connotations of vertigo even if the reading is not intended, as it fits with the symptoms of the Hand of Šamaš (see above). Note also the one of the apodosis's verbs paḫāru 'to gather, collect' is also written with NIGIN. We base the protasis's translation on the fact that, in hendiadys, saḫāru takes on the meaning of 'to do again, to resume doing' the secondary verb. See CAD S, 40 s.v. saḫāru 1e.
  1. If a City 2 (174, *32.22’) interprets the verb’s repetition as extraneous. 
  2. The above protasis is mentioned in CAD U/W, 295 s.v. uṣurtu 4 (a wooden object, reading uncert.) with the suggestion to read the signs as above, is-ḫur is-ḫur, and not as a repeated GIŠ.ḪUR. The signs read as GIŠ.ḪUR would be uṣurtu, which additionally to a 'type of wooden object’ is more commonly translated as a ‘drawing’.

Readings in previous editions

• While If a City 2 (195, *32.22’ B4’) reads the last sign of VAT 09793 6’ as NA, we follow KAL 1 (16-17 Rs. 23’ B6’) and read -š[u. The hand copy KAR 393 also shows a broken ŠU. In VAT 10167 23’, If a City 2 (195, *32.22’ C23’) reads TE-ma_!(i). We again follow KAL 1 (16-17 Rs. 23’ A23’) and read ˹MU˺ 1-KÁM. The photograph of VAT 10167 confirms the reading.

As mentioned above, If a City 2 (174-75, *32.22’) interprets and translates one of the repeated is-ḫur as extraneous:

DIŠ NA ina SILA ina DU-šu₂ EME.DIR ana IGI-šu₂ is-ḫur <<is-ḫur>> NIGIN-šu₂ NA BI ŠU ^dUTU TE-ma GIŠ.NA₂ DIB-su-ma NIG₂.GA NIGIN-ru KU₂-ma BA.UG₇
If, when a man is walking in the street, a lizard circles in front of him and goes around, the hand of Šamaš will reach that man and he will take to his bed and consume the property he has amassed and die.

• KAL 1 (16-17 Rs. 23’ A23’ and B6’ and Rs. 24’ A24’ and B7’) largely reads the omen as above (for slight differences, see the comments on DAB and ˹ana˺^? (apodosis)). KAL 1 translates (16-17, 73 Rs. 23’–24’) the omen as follows:

23’ Wenn vor einem Mann dito (= beim auf der Straße Gehen) eine Eidechse sich umdreht, wieder umdreht und ihn umkreist: Diesen Mann wird die Hand des Šamaš für ein Jahr ans Bett fesseln und

         24’ seinen angesammelten Besitz wird er aufzehren und dann sterben.