I need to return Koch-Westenholz’ Babylonian Liver Omens to the library on Monday, so I thought I’d take another quick look at a couple of things that interested me in passing but to which I hadn’t paid careful attention. Well, here’s one; the apodosis of several omens are in the first person. For example Pān tākalti, tablet 1:21b,
. . . KÚR ana KI.TUŠ.MU SI-sá-ma GAZ-an-ni
. . . nakru ana šubtiya iššir-ma idukkanni
. . . (then) the enemy will charge my camp and defeat me.
Or omen 23b:
. . . ina ŠÀ KUR KÚR NAM.RA È-a
. . . ina libbi māt nakri šallata ušeṣṣa
. . . (then) I will remove booty from the land of the enemy.
Who is the “me” - this “I”? I assume it is the king but is the text itself speaking for the king or is it the bārû speaking as surrogate for the king or is this somehow the king himself?
Another day, another literature search! I’ll let you know if I find something abnormally interesting.
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