PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The protasis has been reconstructed from 32.A.10 and 32.S.6. While the Sultantepe omen is the same as above, the Assur omen has KALAG.GA-su ‘his fortress’ as the subject of the apodosis.
• The translation of pislāt in the apodosis is uncertain. It is the status constructus of the noun pisiltu, which can mean ‘a lump of clay; clay tablet wrapping’. It is frequently attested in omen apodoses (see CAD P, 424 s.v. pisiltu), both in the singular and in the plural, but its meaning is unresolved.

As a status constructus, a noun must follow pislāt. Collation shows remnants of a sign after pí­is­lat that is not noted in If a City 2 (192, *32.30’, A i 8’). The sign is too fragmentary to confirm the reading ḪUL, and the break appears to be almost too small to fit both the signs ḪUL and IGI. Nevertheless the reading has been reconstructed from 32.A.10 and 32.S.6, which both have ḪUL and IGI.

The meaning of pislāt ḪUL is unclear. In line with pislāt’s etymological meaning, we suggest interpreting pí­-is-­lat ḪUL as a ‘negative twist of fate’. See pasālu ‘to turn around, to twist’ in CAD P, 216 s.v. pasālu; see also eSAD s.v. pisiltu ‘twist, adversary’.

• The protasis and apodosis of the above omen are connected by the phonetical association between the protasis’s second verb ilpussu (roots lp(t)s) and the word pislāt (roots pslt) in the apodosis.