Archivum Anatolicum 3, 152f. (OA Sargon Legend)

1        King Sargon,

2        king of Akkade, the market city,

3        strong king, who speaks with the gods.

4        Adad has given him strength:

5        from sunrise

6        to sunset

7        I conquered the land and

8        in a single day,

9        I gave the weapon to 70 cities.

10      I captured their princes and destroyed their cities.

11      I swear by Adad, lord of strength,

12      and Ištar, mistress of battle:

13      I saw a gazelle and threw a brick

14      into the river. When

15      I was running, my girdle broke and

16      I provided myself with a snake and I ran (on)

17      and caught the gazelle. I rose the brick out of the water.

18      I swear by Adad and Ištar:

19      1 thousand oxen, 6 thousand

20      sheep I truly slaughter every day.

21      7 thousand are my heroes who

22      eat briskets in my presence every day.

23      3 thousand are my runners

24      who eat long parts (of meat).

25      1 thousand are my cupbearers

26      eat the top part

27      of the lower legs until

28      being satisfied.

29      My ... invited and

30      my 7 thousand heroes

Rev.

31      ate briskets. For

32      the last (man) there was not enough brisket.

33      He slaughtered his ox

34      from Kušam(m)anu belonging to his seat and

35      gave to the last (man)

36      a brisket. My cook

37      burnt mediocre (meat)(?) and

38      as his punishment he slaughtered 1 hundred oxen,

39      2 hundred sheep, and I/he

40      fed my servants. I swear by Adad

41      and Ištar: For 7 years, one month

42      and two weeks I truly stayed in the darkness

43      together with my troops.

44      Coming out (again), I tied

45      a (measuring) reed of carnelian and lapis lazuli, and

46      for the land

47      I made a division. The mountain Ḫumanum

48      I divided in two parts and as

49      a peg (= boundary marker) between them I erected

50      my image. The prince

51      of Tukriš I dressed in an (animal) skin.

52      (The men of) Ḫudura – I applied slave marks to their heads.

53      Alašia – I covered their heads like

54      that of a woman.

56      I chopped as if cutting off their noses.

57      The heads of the Kilarites

58      I tied with straps.

59–60          I released the sutuḫus of the people of Kaniš.

61      I shaved the middle of the heads of (the men of) Ḫatti.

61–62          I pierced the Luḫmeans with a toggle-pin. As for Qutitum, Lullu and Ḫaḫu: I slit open their cloths.

63      I touched three fringes of the sky with my hands. Why should

64      I make numerous (words) on tablets? Does Anum not know me, (and ) that I am the king

65      (and that) I seized the upper and the lower land?

66      May they increase the regular offerings for me. Adad is king.

26f.: Dercksen 2005, 109, followed by Alster/Oshima 2007, 10 (in spite of their own doubts on p. 11!),  transl. “marrow from shanks”. However, a mng. “marrow” for muḫḫu is not attested elsewhere in Akk., and that food for 1000 persons consisted of marrow seems unlikely. Therefore, I follow van de Mieroop’s (2000) and Foster’s (2005) transl. “top part/cut of the lower leg”.

29: Dercksen 2005, 109, reads x-DU i-iq-re-e-ma. However, the unusual spelling i-iq- makes clear that the i is the suff. of the 1. sg. and belongs to the preceding word (Hecker 2001). Alster/Oshima 2007, 9 and 13f. read NISAG(MÚRU).DU = SAG.DU = ašarēdu “captain”. However, the first sign with the clear vertical strokes instead of winkelhaken does not look like MÚRU.

34: Alster/Oshima 2007, 9 and 34, read UDU! ša-ma-ni-a-am “eight sheep”. However, this reading entails correction of KU to UDU, an unusual syllabic spelling of the numeral (all other numerals in the text besides “thousand” and a-ší-ni-šu l. 48 are spelled logographically) and unusual construction of the numeral (status rectus, postpositive, UDU without pl. determinative).

37: Others (Hecker 2001; Alster/Oshima 2007, 9) correct the text to ku-ur-->-na-am. That gurnu is hitherto not attested with meat (Alster/Oshima 2007, 14) is not a serious argument against this reading, because the word has a broad range of usages. Nevertheless, doubts remain, because gurnu is normally used in apposition to another noun (e.g., ZÚ.LUM gurnum “dates of average quality”.

42: A šapattum period comprises 15 days.

63: The line summarizes the extend of Sargon's campaigns listed in the lines before. ziqqu “post” read by most previous translators is a relatively rare word whereas sikku is well attested in OA. The “fringe” of the sky is most probably the horizon. The number “3” may refer to the east, north and west.

65: The plene spelling (missed by Alster/Oshima 2007, 10) aṣ-bu-tù-ni-i proofs that Dercksen’s (2001, 110 and 116) assumption of a question is correct. This also makes then the interpretation of i-dí-a-ni as iddīʾanni “has ... let me down” (Alster/Oshima 2007, 11) unlikely.

66: I don’t agree with Alster/Oshima 2007, 17 that ^dAdad šarrum seems “to belong to l. 65 rather than 66”: the signs are written clearly at the end of l. 66.