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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
This fragment K. 2279 + S. 675 + S. 2152 (lower half of a large tablet) was copied by Dr. Pinches at the British Museum many years ago. When I saw him on a visit to London he was kind enough to hand me, for publication, his copy of the text, which he had neither transliterated nor translated.
page 568 note 1 For the idea cf. ḳat ameli, Ebeling, Religiöse Texte, 26, 2 ; and ilu šarru bêlu u rubû dâṣu-šu, “God, king, lord, and prince oppress him,” ibid., 7. Also ḳat ili, Ebeling, Religiöse Texte, 26, 1 ; 68, 2, et passim in omens an expression for affliction.
page 568 note 2 Written NITAḪ-ra = girra, fire-god, an aspect of Nergal, god of the summer sun and lord of the dead. He is both a plague-god and a beneficent lord of agriculture. For girra as fire-god see Langdon, Revue d'Assyriologie, 12, 80, 20 ; Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, 337, 9 ; and as god of flocks, Sumerian Liturgical Texts, 177, 12. The reading Girra results from the writing gi-ra, Messerschmidt, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur. 17, 12, and ilu gi-ra, AO. 4331, Rev. i, 2, in Thureau-Dangin's Nouvelles Fouilles de Tello.
page 569 note 1 sag-bi- (ti) = mamîtu, variant of sag-ba. For a definition of mâmîtu, “curse,” in both positive and negative magic, see Langdon, “Babylonian Magic,” Scientia, xv, 226.
page 569 note 2 The permansive of karābu occurs also in King, Magic, 8, 1, ki-ru-ub niš šumi-ki, “the oath in thy name is grace.” nišmû, hearing, i.e. what one hears.
page 569 note 3 ID pl. for dual. Lines 10 and 11 refer to protecting genii.
page 569 note 4 The Assyrian cognate of Hebrew הפח covering, roof, bridal tent, is ḫuppu, which occurs only as an architectural term. išhiṭ ḫup-pa, “she mounted to the roof,” Epic of Gilgamish, vi, 175, and K. 4574 in Meissner, Supplement, ḫup-pu = sellu, ceiling. Evidence for the Babylonian custom of confining a bride and bridegroom in a bridal tent or house is adduced in my note on kallatu, bride, Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, vol. iii. [L.]
page 569 note 5 an-gub-ba is a title of divine beings and has a meaning synonymous with “attendant”. Note CT. 25, 2, 10, the five an-gub-bu of Eninnû ; Ebeling, Religiöse Texte, ii, rev. 9, the šêdu or protecting winged bulls are called an-gub-ba of Esagila. Two inferior deities are called the an-gub-ba of Ekur, CT. 24, 24, 67 ff. Hence angubbâ is a kind of priest, see Streck, Asurbanipal, ii, 268, 27, amel an-gub-ba pl. = K. 5382b (p. 414), an-gub-bi-e naṣir pirišti, “guardians of the mysteries.” With this passage compare amel gub-ba, clearly = angubbû, in BA. iii, 323; vi, 20 f. ramki pašiši amel GUB-BA bārûte naṣir piriše, where angubbû is combined with barû, seer, prophet. The priest amel GUB-BA passim in divination texts, Boissier, Documents Assyriens, 47, 10 = Klauber, Politisch-Religiöse Texte, 106, etc. In II R. 31, 32, amel GUB-BA is followed by amel bārûte, the diviners. Hence the gubba and angubba priests are diviners, seers. The element an is only a noun augment, v. Sumerian Grammar, § 150. The idea of prophecy ia not inherent in the word which should mean muzzazu, guard, one who stands, but it obtained this sense from its constant application to certain stars. The mul gub-ba pl. of Ekur and the mul an-ku-a of Ekur, V R. 46, 15 f. and in RA. 14, 22, 31 the angubba and ankua stars are described as the directors of all things. Kugler, Sternkunde, Ergänzungen, 30, identified the angubba stars with Serpens (CT. 33, 5, 27) and the an-ku-a stars with Ophiuchus (CT. 33, 9, 13). See also Kugler, Sternkunde, ii, 144 (82–5–22, 512, in Brown, Researches, cited by Kugler, Ergänzungen, 61, is now published in CT. 33, 9). Weidner, Handbuch der Babylonischen Astronomie, 32f., explains the angubba stars as the positions of the sun the solstices and the an-ku-a stars as the poles of the celestial equator and ecliptic. See also RA. 16, 150, 15 ; 155, note 1. [L.]
page 570 note 1 muṣlalu, time of repose, siesta, see Landsberger, OLZ. 1916, 37 f.
page 570 note 2 šumšê is philologically identical with the Aramaic expression for evening, אדשמשןופ “between the suns,” which often occurs in the Talmud and Targum. [This is a very fortunate identification by Mr. Sidersky. The original word is šamšâ, dual, “the two suns,” see my corrections to Haupt, ASKT 71, 16, in RA. 14, 16, išêri u šamšâ, “in the morning and at evening.” The Sumerian here is á-ud mi-ba di-e, “the might of the sun glows in darkness,” i.e. twilight. The dual genitive accusative šumšê was obscured to šumšû by analogy with the nisbeh ending. Hence gíg-zal = šumšû, BM. 38372, rev. 9, and Weidner, RA. 11, 124, 19 ; šamšû > šumšû is due to the labial m.—L.]