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A Bilingual Text Concerning Etana
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
The present text is a duplicate of Ki. 1904–10–9, 87 (for a copy of which see AJSL., vol. xxxv, p. 138, and for transcription and translation Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts, vol. vi, p. 32), as indeed has been already noted by Güterbock (ZA., xlii, p. 9). But the fragment previously published was so small as to be scarcely intelligible, and the present fragment (K. 5119) throws a great deal more light upon the real nature of this text. It is probably, as will be shown, a text concerning Etana, thirteenth king of the first dynasty of Kish and subject of the famous myth in which he ascends to heaven on the back of an eagle in search of the plant of birth; but it is a type of text not hitherto associated with that hero.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1935
References
page 459 note 1 For the Accadian poem, see Langdon, Legend of Etana. The myth was written originally in Sumerian. Güterbock supposes that the text concerns Adapa, but Adapa was not born in Kish (see below).
page 459 note 2 See Langdon, , Semitic Mythology, 182, 276, 334Google Scholar. Cf. also “Legend of the Kiškanu,” JRAS., 1928, pp. 843–8.
page 461 note 1 See Liv. A.A., 1935, pp. 31 ff.
page 461 note 2 See JRAS., 1926, pp. 689 ff.; especially p. 695 for KAR., 298.
page 461 note 3 The traces in 1. 1 suggest gal. But in 1. 2 there is barely room for ap-ḳal-lu, whereas in 1. 1 there is room for at least two more signs after gal.
page 462 note 1 Same line in OECT., ii, 10, 16 Etana is an imperative form from the verb è “go up”. Cf. the god de-ta-na dingir è kur-bal-ge “God Etana, he that goes up to the hostile land”, Lutz, , PBS., i, 112, 67Google Scholar.
page 462 note 2 Possibly [suǵur-má]š, but burādu, so far as we know, = suǵur (a kind of plaice), not suǵur-máš. If suǵur-máš is right, perhaps Etana is here identified with that monster. But the meaning of the line is obscure. The seven are presumably the Apḳallê (see rev. 1. 10), who are elsewhere described as wearing fish-skins. Are they perhaps the subject of the line ?
page 462 note 3 Uncertain. The traces on the duplicate might be še, zi, mu, or nam; or šub-turn (— the abode of) may be right.
page 462 note 4 Var. dé.
page 462 note 5 Written ditto, or perhaps [Ug-gal-l]u?
page 462 note 6 Var. íd.
page 462 note 7 Room for one more sign here. First three signs not translated in Accadian.
page 462 note 8 Second king of Eanna and builder of Erech (OECT., ii, p. 11, iii, 7–9). See discussion above. Güterbock renders “Apkallu of Enmekar”.
page 463 note 1 Ditto in text.
page 464 note 1 Var. ma-a-ti.
page 464 note 2 Zimmern, , Ritualtafeln für den Wahrsager 45, iii, 7Google Scholar (now completed by K. 7860) has “Figures of the 7 (apḳallê? follows Naruda + 7 apaḳllê), binût apsî”. See Liv. A.A., 1935, p. 48.
page 464 note 3 Restoration conjectured from KAR., 88, frag. 4, 12. Doubtful.
page 464 note 4 The signs here might be “UŠ.ḲA.
page 466 note 1 Apparently É-ma, but possibly lim-nu-ma. The line would then read: [hi(?)-]ṭa an-ni lim-nu-ma “sin, wickedness, evil”.
page 466 note 2 an-ta-è-dé. Cf. obv. 1. 10 and PBS., x, 2, No. 5, 16.
page 466 note 3 Either from nâhu, I2, or (with Muss-Amolt) from niatāhu. Dhorme, , Choix de Textes, 156, 20Google Scholar, has it-tu-uh libba-šu, and CT., 29, 36, b. 1, has a proper name Nannar (?)-in-tu-uh.
page 466 note 4 [DUG.]GA.
page 466 note 5 This line contained the words addressed (probably) to the clay figures mentioned in 1. 10. Zimmern, , Ritualtafeln, No. 48, 1Google Scholar: ina ṭîṭi iluE-a ib-ni-ku-nu-ši (Ea created you out of clay) may supply the necessary restoration.