Chapter: 38 - Pests

TEST VERSION

Chapter 38

Pests

Chapter 38 of Šumma ālu consists of omens based on the observation of small animals, mostly insects, which were household or agricultural pests. The present edition differs considerably from that found in If a City 2, p. 274-288. Thanks to collation of the tablets, and of photos of the tablets kindly provided by Jon Taylor (British Museum) and Klaus Wagensonner (Yale Babylonian Collection), it is now clear that Sm 472+ is a standard text, not, as was previously thought, an excerpt text. As a result, it has been possible to harmonise the omens preserved on the excerpt texts far more completely, and to remove seven ‘ghost’ omens from the edition. In addition, lexicographical studies of the names of the animals dealt with by the omens have led to several new identifications which significantly clarify the sense of both the individual omens and the Chapter as a whole.

Sources

Chapter 38 is currently preserved on six manuscripts. It is well preserved for much of its length, consisting of around 97 omens, of which 56 can be fully restored. The majority of the remainder preserve around half of the omen, though some are more or less completely lost. Of the six manuscripts, two (MLC 1867 and Sm 472+) are standard texts, while the remaining four (BM 30472, K 3726+, K 6315+, and K 8048+) are excerpt tablets.

MLC 1867 preserves the beginning and the end of the tablet – omens 1-16 and 86’-97’, while Sm 472+ preserves most of the middle – omens 29’-52’ and 66’-91’. As can be seen, this leaves two gaps in the omen sequence, which have to be restored solely from the excerpt texts. Fortunately, two of the excerpt tablets (K 3726+ and K 6315+) are substantial, containing 69 and 40 omens respectively, and, as far as can be judged, these manuscripts keep almost without exception to the same order as the standard text.

The excerpt tablets collectively preserve 12 omens belonging to the first gap and 13 belonging to the second. When the size and shape of Sm 472+ is taken into account, we can see that it is unlikely that more than one or two omens, if any, are completely lost. 

The top and bottom edge of Sm 472+ are lost, as is the right edge. It is clear from the preserved manuscripts that there are at least 27 lines of text lost before the first preserved line of the obverse, after which 25 lines are preserved before a second break after omen 52’. On the reverse, 26 lines of text are preserved, beginning with omen 66’ and ending with omen 94’-95’ before breaking off. The last five lines overlap with the other standard text, MLC 1867, from which we know that just one line is lost in the final break. The tablet would originally have included a catchline and colophon, now completely lost, which would have covered roughly the same space as the 27 lost lines at the beginning of the obverse.

The break between omens 52’ and 66’ cannot be significantly more than 13 lines long, of which eight should be assigned to the obverse and five to the reverse. This gives a total length of 60 lines on the obverse and 31 lines plus a colophon on the reverse, which is roughly what would be expected for a Kouyunjik library tablet. It is conceivable that one or two more omens have been lost in either the first or the second break, but it is unlikely that any more have been lost, since the resultant shape of Sm 472+ would be unusually long for a single column tablet.

The longest excerpt tablet, K 3726+, is a four column tablet, reassembled from nine fragments to a fairly well-preserved state.  The obverse contains approximately 55 omens belonging to Chapter 37 (Ants). The extract from Chapter 38 begins in the last third of column ii, and continues until the end of the reverse, around halfway through column iv.  There is then a broken colophon, containing the Chapternumber (30+8?), a final ruling, the catchline of Chapter 39 and the scribal note nis-ḫu nis-ḫu ‘excerpt, excerpt’ indicating that the tablet contains excerpts from two Chapters of Šumma ālu. Contra If a City 2, 280, Ex(1) iv 26, there is no text lost before this line. 

The tablet contains 69 omens belonging to Chapter 38. Owing to the fact that the columns are narrower than in the other manuscripts, individual omens are frequently written across two, and once even across three (37.143), lines of text. In these instances, the subsequent lines are slightly indented. As with the other manuscripts, K 3726+ distinguishes between the sections of Chapter 38 dealing with different creatures by inserting rulings between them. It does not always include the first omen belonging to a section, but in only two instances (38.49’ and 38.97’) does it omit the final omen before a ruling. 

Both omissions are explicable. Omen 49’ is a particularly long one – written across two lines in all three manuscripts which preserve it. Given the narrow columns of K 3726+, it would probably have taken up four lines of text, and so was omitted. Omen 97’, the final omen of the Chapter, is part of a repetitive sequence – omens 88’-92’ and 93’-97’ are essentially identical, the only difference being that the second set includes a colour attribute.  The apodoses of all these omens are the same damiq ‘it is fortunate’, and so the second set could realistically have been felt to be covered by the first. 

The other long excerpt text, K 6315+, is a two column tablet, composed of two large fragments joined by Freedman in 1983. The obverse contains 40 omens belonging to Chapter 38. The reverse is the sole extant witness to Chapter 39 – Creepy-Crawlies? – containing the remains of 34 omens. This is followed by a broken colophon and the catchline to Chapter 41 (Sheep), which is Chapter 40 according to the Assur catalogue, from which we can see that K 6315+ belonged to the Assur catalogue tradition of Šumma ālu.

Although the beginning and end of K 6315+ are not preserved, it seems that relatively little text is lost. The obverse begins with omen 38.10 and ends with 38.94’-38.95’, so no more than nine lines of text (and probably fewer) can be missing from the beginning, and, unless the extract from Chapter 39 began on the obverse, just one line is lost at the end. This is also clear from the physical form of the tablet – the obverse being convex, the curvature shows that the middle of the whole tablet must have been more or less where the middle of the preserved tablet is, and the edges can be roughly discerned accordingly. As such, we suggest that K 6315+ originally preserved around 45-50 lines of text on the obverse, and 40-45 plus the colophon on the reverse.

            K 6315+ omits around half of the omens of Chapter 38, but does not apparently deviate from the order of the standard text. It includes at least two omens dealing with each animal, with the exception of the lallaru-cricket which is completely omitted. Just six omens are given for this creature in the standard text (31’-36’), though it is still noteworthy that it is wholly omitted from K 6315+, particularly given the fact that at least three, and possibly five, creatures for which only a single omen is given, are all included in the manuscript (61’-65’). This seems to be in keeping with the major concerns of the manuscript, however. The majority of the omitted omens belong to the sections dealing with different types of cricket (lallaru, nappillu, ṣāṣiru - 31’-60’) for which just five omens are included on K 6315+ (48’-49’, 56’-57’, and 60’). In contrast, nine of the 11 gadfly omens (šassūru - 77’-84’ and 87’), and probably all of the moth omens (sāsu – 88’-95’, 96’-97’ probably lost in a break) are included.

The remaining two excerpt tablets are broken after relatively few lines. They seem to have been excerpted according to different criteria from the two larger excerpts, since the order of the omens does not follow that of the standard text. In addition, the excerpts seem to omit far more omens than the other two, and the reverse of each tablet has a large uninscribed space, though it must be said that the surviving fragments are quite small. Further joins are necessary to be certain about these manuscripts.

K. 8048+ has been restored from three fragments, giving 14 lines of text, from the top of the obverse. Judging from the curvature of the upper edge, it seems to have been a single column tablet. What remains of the reverse is uninscribed. The omens in this manuscript do not follow the order of the standard text particularly closely.  The majority of deviations are marked by rulings, which also mark the sections dealing with subjects, though l. 4 (omen 8a) is not marked and is otherwise apparently unattested (though it may belong to an omen in the 22’-25’ range, 23’ being perhaps likeliest). Omens 31’-72’ are omitted completely, though it is possible that several of these lines were originally included after l. 14 (omen 75’), assuming the order of individual sections differed from that of the standard text.

BM 30427 is similarly badly preserved. It is the top corner of what seems to have been a fairly small tablet. Too little of the top edge is preserved to determine whether it was originally a single or double column tablet, but the steep curvature of the obverse indicates that probably just under half of the length of the tablet is preserved. The obverse has 12 lines of text preserved to a greater or lesser degree, while the reverse is uninscribed save for some illegible traces at the edge of the break. As with K 8048+, there is some deviation from the standard order of the text (omen 20’ (l. 4) is placed between omens 15 and 16) and this is not marked by rulings, though the change from one section to another does seem to be marked (ruling after l. 9). 

Differences from previous edition

The realisation that Sm 472+ is a standard, rather than an excerpt text, coupled with new readings through collation of photographs of all six witnesses, has meant that we have been able to harmonise the manuscripts far more completely than was previously the case. The most obvious result of this is that Chapter 38 is seven omens shorter than it was in the previous edition. This is due primarily to the identification of previously unnoticed overlaps between the manuscripts, though several sections have also been significantly reorganised thanks to improved readings. The major changes can be summarised as follows, arranged according to our revised edition:

  • *28’-29’ are now 17’-18’
  • *18’-19’ have been thoroughly rearranged, and are now 19’-20’
  • *20’-27’ are now 21’-28’
  • *25a has been absorbed into 27’
  • *30’-37’ are now 29’-36’
  • *38’-53’ have been thoroughly rearranged and are now 37’-49’
  • *38’ is now 48’
  • *39’-40’ has been found to be a single omen written over two lines and has been placed as 49’
  • *53’ has been found to be written over two lines and is now 49’
  • K 6315+ ll. 19’-20’, previously left unplaced, are now 61’-62’
  • *65’-67’ are now 63’-65’
  • K 6315+ l. 21’, previously placed with *79’, is now 63’
  • In the join between K 6315 and K 8099, partially obscured by white filling material, we now understand there to be three lines, rather than one. These three lines (ll. 21’-23’) are now 63’-65’. Our new interpretation of this section explains the difference between the line count in our edition of K 6315+ and that in the previous edition.
  • *68’-84’ have been thoroughly rearranged, and are now 66’-76’
  • *85’-88’ are now 77’-80’
  • *89’-95’ have been reordered as follows:
    1. *92’ is now 81’
    2. *89’-90’ are now 82’-83’
    3. *93’ is now 84’
    4. *94’ is now 85’
    5. *91’ is now 86’
    6. *95’ is now 87’
  • *96’-105’ are now 88’-97’

In addition to these major changes, there are many new and revised readings in individual omens, and several of the animals involved have been more accurately identified through close analysis of their attestations in Šumma ālu and elsewhere.

Our understanding of the excerpt texts is also greatly improved, as these can now be seen to follow the standard text almost without deviation, simply omitting omens, rather than reordering them. The rare instances in which the omens have been reorganised can usually be explained by the context of the excerpt tablet (e.g. K 8048+ ll. 4, 7-10; BM 30427 l. 4), and they are often marked by rulings before and after (e.g. K 6315+ ll. 2’-3’; K 8048+ l. 6). The one exception to this seems to be K 3726+ l. iv 17, which appears to have been moved without any obvious reason. 

The rulings on the excerpt texts are now completely clear. They mark one of two things – rearranged lines, as just mentioned, or the division between sections dealing with different subjects. There is almost complete unanimity between the tablets as to what constitutes a separate section. The only exception is that K 6315+ and K 8048+ consider omens 29’-30’ to be a separate section. These two omens, although like 1-28’ concerned with the blister beetle (UR.ME/sāmānu), have a different format from the rest of the omens, in that the subject of the protasis is not the insect but the man who sees it.

All things considered, the new edition constitutes a significant development in the understanding of Chapter 38. Rather than a confusingly organised Chapter of uncertain length, it can now be seen to be a coherent text, from which relatively little has been lost.

Content and Structure

Chapter 38 is concerned with several different creatures, and these are presented in discrete sections of the text, marked on each manuscript by horizontal rulings. The subjects of the omens are as follows:

1-30’:              UR.ME           sāmānu           Blister beetle

31’-36’:                                  lallaru             A kind of cricket

37’-49’:                                  nappillu           A kind of cricket

50’-60’:                                  ṣāsiru              A kind of cricket

61’-62’:                       Unplaced

63’-65’:                                   ḫubibūtu          A kind of gecko

ḫurbabillu      Porcupine

kitturru           Salamander?

66’-76’:                                  nammaštu       A swarm

77’-87’:           ŠÀ.TÙR         šassūru            Gadfly

88’-97’:                                  sāsu                 Moth/destructive insect

The basic subject of the Chapter is irritating and destructive pests. The animals are mostly fairly straightforward - the majority are insects which are in some way harmful or annoying. Blister beetles, crickets, and porcupines are crop pests; geckos were considered to be vermin in storerooms; salamanders may have been thought to taint drinking water; swarms of insects can cause all sorts of damage; gadflies bite and spread disease to both humans and livestock; and moths (possibly to be understood simply as ‘destructive insect’) damage cloth.

Several of the identifications of these insects, notably ‘blister beetle’ (UR.ME/samānu), ‘gadfly’ (ŠÀ.TÙR/šassūru), ‘porcupine’ (ḫurbabillu), and ‘salamander?’ (kitturru, a new reading in our edition) are based on a thorough reappraisal of the evidence.  These are discussed in the edition in the commentary to the opening omens of each section, and in two forthcoming papers (Simons A and B). The new identifications of the animals involved represent a substantial advance in our understanding. Relatively little work has been done in this area since Landsberger’s 1934 ‘Die Fauna des alten Mesopotamien’, which updated and enhanced Delitzsch’s 1876 ‘Thiernamen’. Both works are impressive, but heavily outdated, and often rely on assumptions that can no longer be maintained. As the last major work on the subject, Landsberger’s identifications have often been uncritically accepted, but doing so can render a text practically meaningless.

This was the case with Chapter 38, which was previously understood to open with 30 moth omens (in some of which the putative ‘moth’ behaved very unmothily, e.g. omen 18’), moved to deal with various other animals (including apparent winged sewer caterpillars (omen 49’), calling caterpillars (omens 45’-47’), and stinging worms (omen 80’), then returned to more normal sounding moths (sāsu) for the final ten omens. 

In our new interpretation, Chapter 38 begins by dealing with insect crop pests – omens 1-30’ dealing with the blister beetle, and 31’-60’ dealing with types of cricket. It then briefly addresses three (perhaps five) larger animals (61’-65’), before giving 11 omens dealing with the relatively vague term nammaštu ‘swarm’ (66’-76’), which could include crop pests as well as other kinds of pest. The Tablet closes with 21 omens dealing with pests that cause non-crop related damage – gadflies and moths (77’-97’). The whole tablet can be seen to have a logical format, progressing from crop pests to other types of pests (admittedly with a slightly confusing brief section in the middle, i.e. 61’-65’), by way of the generic term ‘swarm’ which acts as a pivot between the two sections.

The structure of the individual sections varies slightly, but revolves around a few basic categories:

 

sāmānu

lallaru

nappillu

ṣāṣiru

 

nammaštu

šassūru

sāsu

in house

1

31’

    

63’-65’

66’-67’, 73’-76’

77’-78’

88’, 93’

in city

 

 

37’

50’

 

 

 

 

moving around

2-6

 

40’-41’

 

 

 

 

 

on household objects

8-9

13-14

 

43-44

54’-55’

 

69’-70’

86’-87’

89’, 94’

Calling

  

32’-33’, 34’?

45’-47’

51’-53’

 

      

being/becoming numerous

10-11

  

48’

56’-60’

 

68’

    

on pathway

12

36’

39’, 42’

  

 

71’-72’

    

interacting with people

15-20’, 26’-30’

      

 

  

79’-84’

90’-91’, 95’-96’

other

7

 

49’

 

 

 

 

92’, 97’

broken

21’-25’

35’

38’

 

61’-62’

 

85’

 

 

Some of the variation is based on the character of the animal involved. For example, only the crickets have omens relating to ‘calling’, plainly because the other animals do not make a noise. The order of the omens varies from section to section, but each section opens with an introductory omen or two in which the animal is ‘seen’ or ‘appears’ in the man’s house, or at some location in the city.

The sāsu ‘moth’ omens constitute a special case, insofar as they consist of two identical sets of omens. The first set (88’-92’) lists different actions of the moth. These are repeated verbatim in the second set (93’-97’), but with the addition in of a list of colours that the sāsu can be. The apodosis is identical for each omen, SIG5/damiq ‘it is favourable’.  Protases are also shared between sections, however, changing only the name of the animal. For example, sāmānu, nappillu, ṣāṣiru, and šassūru all have omens in which they are seen on the furniture (13, 43’, 55’, and 86’), nammaštu is said to give birth on the furniture (69’). In the case of sāmānu, nappillu, and nammaštu the furniture omen is followed by an identically phrased omen in which millstone is substituted for furniture. It is worth noting that the ant omens of Chapter 37 also use many similar protases.

Interpretation

The apodoses of Chapter 38 can similarly be grouped into a few basic categories:

 

sāmānu

lallaru

nappillu

ṣāṣiru

  

nammaštu

šassūru

sāsu

be/become important

1, 16, 22’

        

 

81’-84’

  

have enough food

2-3, 9,

11-14, 23’

    

57’

        

damage to house

6

31’-32’, 36’

39’, 41’, 46’-48’

56’,

58’-59’

61’,

63’-65’

66’-68’, 73’-76’

    

house reinhabited

10

    

60’

63’

      

happiness

1-12,

15, 17’, 21’,

24’-25’, 30’

              

success

19’, 26’, 28’-29’

        

71’

78’, 87’

  

failure

27’

  

49’

    

 

    

death

  

33’

      

 

80’

  

have a god

          

 

77’, 79’, 86’

  

fortunate

              

88’-97’

other (negative)

7-8,

  

40’

    

72’

    

other (positive)

20’

              

broken/unclear

4-5, 18’, 21’, 30’

34’-35’

37’-38’, 42’-44’

50’-55’

62’

67’,

69’-70’

85’

  

 

The omens grouped under ‘damage to house’ include those in which the apodosis predicts nadê bīti ‘abandonment of the house’, enēš bīti ‘weakening of the house’, and šapāḫ bīti ‘dispersal of the house’.

The groups listed here are fairly wide, but one point stands out very clearly – the auspiciousness of an omen depended to a great extent on the type of animal involved. While all but four (6-8 and 27’) of the 30 blister beetle omens are positive, all but two (57’ and 60’) of the 30 cricket omens are negative. Similarly, just one (71’) of the 11 swarm omens is positive, whereas all but one (80’) of the 11 gadfly omens are. The sāsu ‘moth’ omens are uniformly positive. We will not consider the larger animals in omens 63’-65’ here as each is given only a single omen, from which it is difficult to judge their ominous significance accurately. 

On closer examination, each of the outliers in these groups can be explained by the immediate context of the omen:

  • 6. If blister beetles in a man's house climb up and down the brick(work) of the man's house – weakening : … […] of the house.

This is to be contrasted with omens 2 and 3:

2. If [blister beetles] in a man's house climb up the wall – the owner of that house will have enough food.

3. [If] blister beetles in a man's house repeatedly climb up the wall – the owner of that house will have have regular food to eat for the rest of (his) days.

The point is clearly that blister beetles climbing up the wall are a good sign. The logic of omens dictates that the opposite will be a bad sign, so blister beetles climbing up and down the walls naturally results in a negative apodosis, despite the positive connotations of the insect.

It is unfortunate that omens 4 and 5 are broken, as the same dichotomy would probably be seen if they survived intact:

4. [If] blister beetles in a man's house climb up the walls toward the top – the kurru-measure … [...] ...

5. If blister beetles in a man's house climb down from the walls toward the bottom – the kurru-measure … [...]

  • 7. If blister beetles mate in a man's house – the lady of the house will repeatedly [cause tr]ouble to her husband.

8. If a blister beetle is seen in a man's house on top of a bed – the lady of the house will nag her husband.

The mention of sex and beds in the protases seem to condition the appearance of the woman in the apodosis. Women in omen apodoses are almost always a negative characteristic, and so the animal does not seem to be the underlying reason for the negative apodoses.

  • 27’. If a blister beetle climbs onto a man's right foot on the road – he will not go on a journey which he set out to (undertake).

This is to be contrasted with the following omen:

28’. If ditto (= a blister beetle) climbs onto a man's left foot on the road – he shall go on a journey (on which) he will acquire profit.

Evidently the basis for the negative apodosis in 27’ is that omen mathematics dictate that a positive (blister beetle) + a positive (right) = a negative. In 28’ the omen mathematics work the same way – a positive (blister beetle) + a negative (left) = a positive.

  • 57’. If bla[ck] ditto (= ṣāṣiru-crickets) are numerous [in] a man's house – that house will have enough food.

Again, the omen mathematics conditions this positive apodosis. A negative (ṣāṣiru-cricket) + a positive (black) = a positive. This is clear by comparison with the surrounding omens, which are phrased identically, but substitute white, red, and unspecified ṣāṣiru-crickets for the black ones. White and red being negative colours, the omen mathematics results in negative apodoses.

  • 60’. If [ṣāṣiru-cri]ckets become numerous in an abandoned house – that house will be inhabited (again).

This is to be contrasted with the preceding omen:

59’. If ditto (= ṣāṣiru-crickets) become numerous [in] a man's house – that house will be dispersed.

The point is that an infestation of ṣāṣiru-crickets in a full house will empty it, but with typical omen logic, the reverse is also true – an infestation in an empty house will fill it. There is also an element here in which life attracts life, so an empty house once filled with ṣāṣiru-crickets, will naturally fill up, despite the fact that they are a negative animal. It is worth comparing this omen to omen 10:

10. If blister beetles are numerous : are present in a man's abandoned house – that house will be inhabited (again), its inhabitant will be happy.

Again, life attracts life, and a large number of insects in an empty house will lead to it being reinhabited. As the blister beetle is a positive omen, however, there is an additional apodosis that the inhabitant will be happy.

  • 71’. If a swarm […] from the house to the g[ate …] – there will be [goo]d fortune in the man's house.

This omen forms a couplet with the following one:

72’. If a swarm […] from the gate to the house […] – the land will lie desolate.

While they are not preserved, it is clear that they involve movement of the swarm away from and towards the house respectively. The movement of a negative omen (a swarm) away from the house results in a positive apodosis.

  • 80’. If a gadfly stings a man – regarding that omen: (it means) death.

This is possibly to be explained as an instance of real life observation – gadflies can carry a number of pathogens, including anthrax and tularaemia, so the bite of a gadfly could be very dangerous in the pre-modern era.

It is noteworthy that for ill-omened animals, even the reversal of a single element of an omen was not always sufficient to render them positive:

40.’ If a nappillu-cricket runs about for the whole da[y] – devastation of the city.

41’. If a nappillu-cricket [run]s about for the whole n[ight] – abandonment of the house.

The omen mathematics here perhaps considers night and day to be neutral elements, and so irrespective of when the negative nappillu-cricket does its running, the result will be negative.  Alternatively, it is possible that day and night are considered to be positive and negative respectively, but that the nappillu-cricket is such a severe negative sign that the addition of a second negative (night) is only sufficient to lessen the severity of the omen – thus nappillu (very negative) + day (positive) = complete destruction, whereas nappillu (very negative) + night (negative) = lesser destruction.

The fact that any of the animals involved in this Chapter were positive portents is striking. Each of them is a noxious pest, and none would be welcome under normal circumstances. It seems likely, therefore, that the blister beetle, the gadfly and the moth benefitted from the same sort of logic as is used when being pooed on by a bird is said to be good luck.

Protasis and apodosis link

Several of the omens in Chapter 38 can be best understood by considering the innate parallelism utilised throughout omen compendia. A selection is given here. Several more examples are noted in the commentaries to individual omens.

 

Connection by sign

Some omens are composed on the basis of multivalent signs.  A good example of this can be found is the gadfly section:

  • 82’. If a gadfl[y] climbs up [on]to a woman – that woman will become important.

83’. If a gadf[ly] climbs up onto a pregnant woman – that woman will acquire fame.

84’. If a gadf[ly] climbs up [onto] an unknown [woman] – that woman will receive honours.

These are the only three omens in Chapter 38 in which a woman is mentioned in the protasis.  The likelihood is that this is due to the fact that the logogram used to write the šassūru ‘gadfly’ is ŠÀ.TÙR, which also means ‘womb’. This further leads to the very unusual apodoses in which women are associated with a positive outcome. The apodoses are based on the fact that the gadfly seems to have been a positive omen, and the fact that, as a woman has been mentioned in the protasis, the apodosis must relate to her.

Connection by sound

In a number of omens, the phonetic qualities of words in the protasis seem to have dictated the choice of words in the apodosis. In the most straightforward examples, there are simple phonetic similarities between key words:

  • 4. [If] blister beetles in a man's house climb up the walls toward the top – the kurru-measure … [...] ...

5 If blister beetles in a man's house climb down from the walls toward the bottom – the kurru-measure … [...]

In these omens the word igāru ‘wall’ in the protasis can be understood to have influenced the use of the very similar-sounding kurru ‘kurru-measure’ in the apodosis. 

  • 63’. If a ḫubibītu-gecko is seen in a man's house – th[at] house will lie desolate (but then) it will be inhabited (again).

64’. If a porcupine appears in a man's house – that house will lie desolate.

In these, the names of the animals, respectively ḫubibītu and ḫurbabillu influenced the use of iḫarrub ‘will lie desolate’ in the apodosis.

A more sophisticated example draws on homonyms:

  • 33’. If a lallaru-cricket in a man's house … [… ca]lls repeatedly – in th[at] house [...] a dying man will die.

The word lallaru is not only the name of the insect, but also means ‘mourner’, by extension from its literal meaning of ‘wailer’. Thus, the homonymy of lallaru-cricket and lallaru-mourner means that the call of the animal presages death. This is further complicated by the fact that the lallaru-cricket likely owes its name to the resemblance of its call to a mourning wailer.  A very close modern parallel is the deathwatch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum), the noise of which was long thought to be a harbinger of death to the sick.

Connection by sense

Several omens base their apodoses on the cultural connotations of words found in their protases.  A good example of this is found in omens 7-8

  • 7. If blister beetles mate in a man's house – the lady of the house will repeatedly [cause tr]ouble to her husband.

8. If a blister beetle is seen in a man's house on top of a bed – the lady of the house will nag her husband.

In omen 7, the protasis deals with sex, while omen 8 concerns the bed. To the Mesopotamian mind, these topics led naturally to women, on which basis the apodosis was composed.

 

Omens inspired by ‘real life’ observations?

This category is not uncommon in omen texts, though in Tablet 38 just a single omen seems to fit.  This is omen 80’, as discussed above:

  • 80’ If a gadfly stings a man – regarding that omen: (it means) death.