CUSAS 32, 25a
A rectangular tablet with two incantations, each on a different side of the tablet. The obverse contains an incantation against an aching belly, switching between Sumerian and Akkadian, with a passage where the name of the patient, his god and goddess, should be inserted (ll. 6–7). On the reverse: an incantation against a snake in a non-identified language (see George 2016, 118 II.D.14). CDLI P251829
Transliteration
2 ú-<a> ab-gig gig an-ta su[r-ra]
3 ki-te-x+KAK in-nu-z[i?-(x)]
4 ki-ma An-nu šar ša-me-e ir-⌈ḫu⌉-[ú]
5 bu-ul dŠákkan rēšam(SAG) [l]u-šu-ri-ma
6 ne-nam dumu ne-n[am] dingir-bi ne-nam
7 ù ama-dinnin-[bi] ne-nam
8 lu-ra-ḫi-mi i-di ši-ip-tam
9 dDa-mu be-el ta-ka-la-tim
10 bēlet-ilī(dMaḫ) be-le-et re-mi-im
11 dGu-la a-sú-ut a-we-le-e
12 ⌈kap⌉-pa-šu lu-pu-ut
13 zu-qá-as-sú i-ši ti-bé-e!-mi / qí-bi-šum
14 K[A!-i]nim-ma! šà-gig-ga
Translation
1–3 Alas! that man is sick! Alas! that man is sick! A sickness oozing from above, from below it is rising(?).
4–5 Just as Anu, king of heaven, inseminated the herd of Šakkan, may I impregnate and pour magic over the patient (lit. slave, "head")
6-8 so-and-so, son of so-and-so, whose god is so-and-so, and whose goddess is so-and-so! Cast the spell!
9–11 O Damu, lord of the craftiness! O Bēlet-ilī, lady of the womb, O Gula, physician of men!
12–13 Touch his hand, lift his chin! order him: "stand up!"
14 Incantation for aching belly.
Commentary
2: For different diseases falling from heaven, see Wasserman 2007, 45f.
5: The first-person voice refers to the healer, while the expression rēšam [l]ušūrīma (arû-Š) alludes to the patient: an actual slave (rēšum), or an unusual designation for any man.
9: dDamu bēl ta-ka-la-tim: George 2016, 127 translates “lord of the pouch” (CAD T 61, s.v. takaltu “bag, pouch, sheath” and “stomach”), but as the form is in pl., we prefer takkalātu (< nakālum) “clever, ingenious behavior” (with CDA 395). A double entendre is no doubt at work: Damu, the lord of craftiness is also the lord of the (aching) stomach.
9–11: The joint mentioning of Damu, Bēlet-ilī, and Gula is unique. No other incantation known to us contains this divine triad.
12f.: It is hard to read these lines and not recall Mark 5: 41f.: “Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, ‘Talitha, cumi’, which is translated, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise’. Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age” (New King James Version).
Michael P. Streck and Nathan Wasserman, Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL), seal.huji.ac.il. No commercial use is allowed. Published under CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives). Reproduced unmodified. Cite as SEAL no. 7120; view on seal.huji.ac.il.