Fs. Wilcke 62
Note the mistake in the accession number in the title of Cavigneaux 2003: 61. The correct number is Sb 12360 (as on p.62). CDLI No. P414447.
Transliteration
1 [í]d-⌈ug⌉-lá-at! ú-li-is-sú
2 ídÙ-la-a ú-ra-ab-bi-i-šu
3 ša-pa-al šu-up-pa-a-tim na-a-di ki-i ba-aš-mi
4 qa-aq-qa-as-sú ki-i e-ṣi-it-ti-im
5 [zi]-ib-ba-ta-a-šu ki-i bu-ka-nim
6 [id]-di-iš-šum dAdad(IŠKUR) ri-gi-im-šu dNergal(GÌR.UN[U.GAL])
7 [(x)] ⌈x⌉ BÍL ša AN pí-ta-aš-šu-lam id-di-iš-š[um]
8 [ú-ta]m-mi-ka dEš4-tár ù dDumu-zi
9 [be?]-ra-a ù ṣú-up-pa-a la qè-e-re-ba-am
Translation
1 The river Tigris bore it,
2 The river Ulay raised it.
3 It is lying like a viper under the rushes.
4 Its head is like a pestle,
5 Its tail (Lit. two tails) is like a (mortar)-pounder.
6 Adad bestowed it with its scream, Nergal
7 the ... of the sky(?), bestowed it with crawling.
8 I conjure you by Ištar and Dumuzi
9 not to draw near to me (even to a distance of) one league and sixty cubits!
Commentary
1–2: Another incantation against a reptile, most probably a scorpion, in which two rivers are said to bear and raise the dangerous creature is YOS 11, 04b: 23: bi-ri-it ídIdiglat (IDIGNA) ù ídLagaš(ŠIR.BUR.LAki)...
4: Note the spelling /qa/, typical of Ešnunna which appears twice in this line. Was this text, infused with snake imagery, brought to Susa from Ešnunna, a city whose main god was in the form of a snake?
5: [zi]-ib-ba-ta-a-šu, formally a dual form, could perhaps refer to a double-faced mace, a known symbol of different gods, one of which is Nergal (cf. the hesitations of the editor regarding this form).
6: Nergal is found at the end of this line although stylistically one expects him to appear at the head the following line.
7–8: For the nomen actionis pitaššulum, "to crawl on the ground" (see CAD P, 234 2.), cf. the late hymn to Ninurta: pa-ši-la ina maḫar(IGI) la-si-mu ta-šak-kan, "you (Ninurta) place the crawling-one in front of the quick-runner (in the battle-field)" (Mayer 1992a, 21: 3b). Why is Nergal said to be responsible of the creature's crawling remains unclear.
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. 7180; view on seal.huji.ac.il.