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July 27, 2007

Is Your Horse Constipated or Suffering from Ischuria?

Here's what KTU 1.85, the veterinary text from Ugarit, tells you to do.

[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]

9) w . k . l . yḫru . w . yṯtn . śśw
10) [ms]s . št . qlql . w . št . ʿrgz
11) [yd]k . aḥdh . w . yṣq . b . aph

And when a house does not defecate or urinate, one crushes together the extract (sap) of a measure of Cassia and a measure of cRGZ nut, and pours it into its nose.

Aside from the usual problems of grammar and vocabulary associated with KTU 1.85, there are two words in this section that call for special consideration. Both are in line 10. mss, appears here as a noun, is likely based on the same root as the verb ymsś in line 3 where it means something like "liquefy." Biblical Hebrew uses the root (מסס) always a verbal form with the meaning "dissolve" or "melt."

Since Virolleaud, 81, most scholars, with variations on the theme, have associated qlql with Hebrew קְלׂקֵל in Numbers 21:5. Virolleaud, citing Akkadian qaqqullu, suggested that it be translated "cardamome." Pardee, 57, takes up this suggestion with the caveat that qlql cannot be precisely identified with a specific plant. Cohen and Sivan, 24-25, reject the comparison with Hebrew קְלׂקֵל but note that either Akkadian qaqqullu or qulqulliānu are possible cognates because "each of them occurs in plant-lists and as drugs." They prefer qulqulliānu, a type of Cassia, because it is known to be a mild laxative. As did Fisher, 210, I have followed Cohen and Sivan's suggestion.

Ugarit yḫru and yṯtn are verbal forms of two cognate Hebrew nouns that anyone familiar with 2 Kings 18:27 and Isaiah 36:12 should easily recognize. Of course, שׁתן occurs in an abnormally interesting Biblical Hebrew idiom: מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר. Modern translations often pulpitize this idiom to something like "one male." But the old King James Version got is right, "that pisseth against the wall." Today, "a pisser against the wall" would be even better.

If you are wondering why I translated only one section for this post, it is because the next two sections appear to deal with the same symptom and I was two lazy to post three sections at once.

References:

Cohen, Chaim and Daniel Sivan, The Ugaritic hippiatric texts : a critical edition, American Oriental Series Essay 9; New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1983

Fisher, Loren, "From Ugarit to Gades: Mediterranean Veterinary Medicine," Maarav, 5-6, Spring, 1990, 207-220

Pardee, Dennis, Les Textes Hippiatriques, Ras Shamra-Ougarit II, Paris: Editons Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1985

Virolleaud, Charles, "Fragments d'un Traité Phénicien de Thérapeutique Hippologique: Provenant de Ras-Shamra," Syria, 15, 1934, 75-83

Posted by Duane Smith at July 27, 2007 7:24 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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