sealPacific

Akkadian Prayer Miscellany

Alan Lenzi, University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA)

Great Prayer to Nabu

tablet

This long prayer is found on one tablet, K.2361 + K.3193 + K.14033 + K.18434 + Sm.389 + Sm.601 (+) K.15248, housed in the British Museum (→museum record). Brünnow published the largest pieces of this tablet in 1890 (→bibliography). His copy is not always accurate. Von Soden made many improvements to the reading of the text in his edition over eighty years later (von Soden 1971; →bibliography). Translations include Foster 2005: 621-626 (English) and, less fully, Seux 1976: 181-185 (French). A colleague has generously made a few (older) photographs available to me for the purposes of collation. Unfortunately, they are not always sufficient for the task. If not otherwise indicated, the text presented below follows von Soden's. I have included his indications of collations of Brünnow's copy (!). My own suggestions for restorations are typically flagged with a question mark. Thanks to a personal communication from Prof. Lucio Milano (February 26, 2021), I have learned that Dr. Geraldina Rozzi has presented a new edition and commentary of this prayer in her dissertation, submitted to Ca' Foscari University. Her work will be published in the Antichistica series (Venice: Edizioni Ca'Foscari).