PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The restoration of Ù.TU comes from 32.A.60 and 32.S.70. Note the phonetic complement ‑di after ŠUB in the Assur omen.
• The above omen initiates a series of omens (32.N.53’ to 32.N.57’) about lizards reproducing. All three recensions feature a series of such omens: 32.A.57 to 32.A.62 and 32.S.70 to 32.S.72 and 32.S.74 to 32.S.76. See also VAT 9906 ii 5 (Assur).

The act of begetting young is written with the signs Ù.TU, which correspond to the verb (w)alādu. This verb is usually translated as ‘to give birth’. In Akkadian, however, its semantic meaning is much broader than in English: encompassing “the acts of conceiving, begetting, giving birth, creating, fashioning, producing, and […] sometimes also […] in reference to men as creators” (Couto-Ferreira 2016, 27). See also the CAD A/1, 287–94 s.v. alādu.

Most lizard species reproduce by means of laying eggs and only a few species reproduce by means of live young, which the English term ‘to give birth’ implies. Nevertheless the English ‘to give birth’ has been used over other options such as ‘begets (young)’ or ‘lays (eggs)’, because in English both verbs require a direct object that is not present in the Akkadian. Further, there are a few omens in Šumma ālu that reference an animal’s eggs directly, though none among the lizard omens. See for example, the snake omen 24.6 as well as the commentary on omen 23.49 (Rinderer 2021, 93, 201–2, 239–40). In the Assur recension, the translations in KAL 1 always refer to lizards laying a clutch (of eggs). This has not been treated as a difference in the translations.