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TIM 9, 73b

SEAL no. 7159 · IM 52546 · Incantations · Legitimation · Šaduppûm (mod. Tell Ḥarmal) · 7 lines · 20 words · 49 signs · 1 Sumerograms

According to unofficial digging records the tablet was found in HL 3-287 R. 11 L. III below stairs. CDLI No. P223469

Transliteration

Rev.

4       [uš]-⌈ša-ap-ka ra-ma-ni                 

5       a-[ra-a]ḫ-ḫi-ka pa-ag-ri

6       ki-ma ídLU.UḪ.DA.X [ x ]

7       ir-ḫu-ú ra-ma-a[n-ša]

8       tu-en-ne-nu-ri

9       ri-iš ši-ip-ti i-nu-ma  

10      [x ] ša ba? ni? i?x bu 

Translation

Rev.

4         I will enchant you, my self!

5         I will inseminate you, my body!

6–7      As the river LU.UḪ.DA.X [ x ] has inseminated itself

8         Incantation formula.

9         The beginning of the incantation “when......”.

Commentary

   rev. 6: Cooper (1996, 50) reads: ki-ma a-sa-lu-uh da x [   ]. Cavigneaux 1999, 264–265 (based on photos) follows, reading: ki-ma a-sa-lu-uh ?-pu?! (pagaršu)], translating “As Asalluhi(?) ... (wašāpum?) [his body]”. The proposed reading is not free of difficulties, as there seem not to be enough space for [pa-ga-ar-šu]. In parallel texts (studied by Cooper 1996 and Cavigneaux 1999) the speaker's self-insemination is compared in two ways: either to the way some god “inseminates” himself (that is, clearly, what Cooper and Cavigneaux had in mind), or the speaker's self-insemination is compared to the way a river “inseminates” itself. Our reading  – following Wilcke 1985b, 208 – prefers the latter option. A river ídLU.UḪ.DA.X [ x ] is unknown to us.

         rev. 9: Cavigneaux (1999, 265: “beginning of the spell, when...”) seems to take rēš šipti as a performing instruction. With CAD R, 288, 4c (and AHw 1247,1) it is not impossible that this is a scribal remark giving the incipit of the (group of?) incantation(s): “When...”. A practice of referring to an incantation by its incipit is unknown in the OB corpus of incantations.

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. 7159; view on seal.huji.ac.il.