PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The above omen and the subsequent, VAT 9906 iii 13, are similarly constructed and probably thematically linked. Instead of SAG.MEŠ ‘heads’, however, the unknown action described in the protasis of VAT 9906 iii 13 occurs at a man’s ‘feet’, GÌR.MEŠ. As they are placed together, SAG.MEŠ and GÌR.MEŠ refer to the upper and lower part of the man, respectively. This pairing also helps to explain the plural marker MEŠ after the SAG ‘head’, despite the obvious singular meaning. See also CAD R, 277 s.v. rēšu for instances where the word for head is occasionally written in the dual.

The signs SAG.MEŠ are also used with a singular meaning in the anti-witchcraft text knowns as Regaining potency before Ištar-of-the-stars (CMAwR vol. 3 Text 4.2), line 1:16. The text is best preserved on line VAT 8233 r. 3, which reads GIM ^na4GIŠ.NU₁₁.GAL lu ZÁLAG.MEŠ SAG.MEŠ-[ia], is transliterated as kīma ašnugalli ((lū)) namrū rēšī[ya], and is translated as “let [my] head be as bright as alabaster” (CMAwR vol. 3, 4.2 1:16).