1883-01-18, 464 (Ass. 16)

Obv.

i 1' [“I will make you grab your] garments [with (your) teeth”].

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i 2' “Wh[ere will they see you(f.)? My two eyes are she-wolves”].

i 3'–4' “Let me scratch you(f.) like scratching a dog! Let me pluck you(f.) like plucking a bird”.

i 5'–6' “The goatish-girl, when she hears (me), will repeatedly ask for me”.     

i 7'–8' Scratching a dog – How exactly!? Plucking a bird – What!?

i 9'–10' Scratching of a dog – in the center; Plucking a bird – (in the) ­…

i 11'–12' As for plucking of the partridge: I will pluck half (of it) and (the other) half I will let go.

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i 13' “To the Eq[ulû I will rise and go”].

Rev.

r. i' 1' . . .

r. i' 2' . . .

r. i' 3' . . .

r. i' 4' The furnishings – [of . . .],

r. i' 5' My pulling rope – [of sangilmud-stone],

r. i' 6' My lifters – [of . . .],

r. i' 7' My boat poles – [of serpentine],

r. i' 8' Of agate [are my rudders].

r. i' 9' From oarlock [to oarlock],

r. i' 10' the pro[cessional inlay] is of agate.

r. i' 11' (Made of) cedar offshoots are my pegs. My [girding] r[ope – of bright linen].

i' 12' My hatches [– of jasper]

r. i' 13' The ‘lyre’ is inlaid with [choice] go[ld].

r. i' 14' My [mooring p]ole is of [cedar].

r. i' 15' [The tow ro]pe [is of purple wool].

i 2'–12': This section of bold incipits is found in three more texts: K 4247+ i 34–41, K 7924: i' 11'–16', and Si 861 + Si 870: i' 8'–13'.

i 1':  What means grabbing a garment in one’s teeth is not clear.

i 2':  The verb amārum is often used in love literature as the first step in amorous advances (Wasserman 2016, 50–51). The comparison of his eyes to two hounding she-wolves emphasizes the lustful, even ferocious, nature of the masculine gaze.

i 3'–4':  The animals mentioned in this couplet (dog, bird) probably stand metaphorically for the woman’s sexual organ which the man wants to touch. Grammatically, the verbal form lu-sip-ki is to be derived from esēpum “to gather, to collect up”, but as this verb comes not with animals or hair, we hesitantly take lu-sip-ki as a non-grammatical form of sepû (CAD S, 226–227). The latter verb specifically renders some action performed on the hair, and is lexically equated with síg and baqāmu.[1] The two verbs sepû and baqānu carry no doubt a sexual meaning of fondling or scratching.

i 5'–6': The male is confident of himself: the woman will crave him, once she hears him calling her name. The woman is referred to as a she-goat, more exactly a shorn she-goat, as the baqānu (ll. i 4', 8', 10'–12') indicates. In addition, in late commentaries, kizzanītu is related to gizzānītu derived from gazāzu “to shear” (see Gabbay 2016, 140–141 with n. 59, referring to the Hellenistic mythological almanac = Reynolds 1999, 370 and Reynolds 2019, 206: iv 8, iv 10, cf. 28 and 362ff., esp. 366).

i 7'–8': The interrogative kīkī “how” is used also in BM 40900+ iii 9 (// BM 43879      iv 24'): bi-iṣ-ṣu-ru-ú šá tap-pat-ti-i am-me-ni ki-ki-i te-te-né-pu-uš. – We understand mi-na-a-ti, not as the pl. of minītu “dimensions, or limbs”, but as an irregular (and unexpected) pl. form of mīnu “what”, standing in parallel to kīkī in the previous line.

9'–10':  In this couplet, it seems that the female, alarmed by the man’s impetuous passion, demands that he clarifies his intentions. The male’s answer is opaque. It is not clear what “the middle”, or “center” (birīti, l. 9) refers to, and šin^?-ni^? migri, if read correctly, is even harder to construe. While migrum “agreement, consent” can find parallels in love-related texts (cf. [māg]irtum šumki “’Favorable’ is your name” Wasserman 2016, 178: iv 21), šin^?-ni^? eludes us entirely.

i 11'–12': The woman tells what she will do to the man’s “bird”: half of it will be “plucked” and the other half untouched. This specification carries clear sexual meaning, for punishment for adultery by shaving half the head and the pubic hair is attested from a court case from OB Isin (Civil 2011, 263). The name of the bird is also indicated: a partridge, which literally renders “the bird of the hole”, a name that leaves little for imagination as to its sexual function.[2]

i 13': For the spelling of this temple name as e₄(A)-qu-le-e (also in Si 861 + Si 870 i' 14'), see George 2000, 271 n. 22.