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July 26, 2006

More on the Breath of Life

A few months ago I wrote about what I thought was a rather strange idiom in one of the more recently published Ugaritic tablets, ħ npšk w ħ n[pšy] (I use ħ for het) in RS 94.2284:12. I compared it to a very similar idiom in I Samuel 1:26 and a few other passages in Biblical Hebrew. The somewhat similar idiom, but in quite a different context, may also be seen in a few of the Amarna letters. For example, Zimreddi of Sidon calls the Pharaoh ša-ri TIL.LA-ia (balâţ-ia), "the breath of my life," in EA 144:2 and 8. It also occurs in an unbroken context in EA141:2, 7, 10, 37 (from Ammunira of Beirut) and EA 143:15 and 17 (from Ammunira of Beirut). A version of the expression can also be seen in EA 141:13 and 43 spelled out ša-ri ba-la-ti-ia (from Ammunira of Beirut). More fragmentary examples can be found in EA 142:1 (from Ammunira of Beirut) and EA 143:9.

Several other texts refer to Pharaoh's breath. For example, in EA 147:16-28, Abi-Milku of Tyre writing to the Pharaoh says, following Moran as I do in all the translations of the Amarna letters that follow,

The servant herewith writes to his lord that he heard the gracious messenger of the king who came to his servant, and the sweet breath that came forth from the mouth of the king, my lord, to his servant - his breath came back! Before the arrival of the messenger of the king, my lord, breath had not come back; my nose was blocked. Now that the breath of the king has come forth to me, I am happy and satisfied(?), day by day.

The very life, or at least the breath, of these vassal kings was dependent on the word of the Pharaoh.

So would a learned native speaker of Ugaritic who knew Akkadian (or the other way around) have recognized šāri balâţ-ia as a translation of ħ npšy with the same idiomatic meaning? One can never be sure, but I don't really think so. They are close but not quite the same. First, npš does not appear in the vocabulary texts from Ugarit so we cannot be absolutely sure what its Akkadian equivalent would be. Second, RS 20.123+:20" does equate balâţu^ţu (TIL+ţu) with h]é-y[a]-[m]a(?). Other examples, RS 20.426+:6' and RS 20.189A+B:25, are likely but less certain. So our theoretical native speaker would probability have no problem with Akkadian balâţu equaling Ugaritic ħay. But, third, the word order with "life" coming first in the Ugaritc (and Hebrew) idiom and second in the Akkadian expression raises a problem. And fourth, while šāru meaning "breath" is within the semantic range of Ugaritic napšu, Ugaritic napšu appears to have a somewhat broader range of meaning perhaps closer to Akkadian napšu which, like šāru means "breath," but also "life." In this regard, EA 126:15 and a few other examples are interesting. EA 161:54-56 reads,

Let my lord's messenger come to me (the cunning Aziru, king of Amurru) so I can give all that I promised in the presence of the king, my lord, I will give food supplies (balâţ napšāti), ships, oil, logs of boxwood(?) and (other) woods.

Here the word order and individual word meanings are actually closer to our Ugarit idiom. But the meaning of this Akkadian expression is clearly food for the body. It would be interesting to know how much of that meaning was recognized by those who used the Ugaritic idiom ħ npšk or its possible Hebrew equivalent חֵי נַפְשְׁךָ. I do often think that we have a far more ethereal interpretation of נפשׁ than an ancient reader would have brought to the text.

At Amarna we see that balâţu can mean more than simply "life." In EA 116:44b-48, Rib-Hadda of Byblos writes, "May the king heed the words of his loyal servant and give provisions (ba-la-ta) to his servant and his maidservant, Gubla." And in EA 122:25-31 where the ever persistent Rib-Habba writes, "There is a garrison . . . of the king with him (Pahura?), and there are pro[visi]ons (ba-la-ţa) from the king at his disposal, but for me there is neither garrison not provisions (ba-la-ţa) from the king." This interesting twist in the semantic range of balâţu in the Amarna letters can also be seen in other places where Akkadian was used.

There is more to balâţu than simply "life." It involves the very physical and practical stuff of life.

This struck me while reading Moran's translations of the Amarna letters on an airplane between Phoenix and Cleveland.

Update: July 27, 2006
Fixed a couple of typos

Reference:

Posted by Duane Smith at July 26, 2006 7:26 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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Posted by: Joe Cathey at July 27, 2006 6:18 AM

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