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July 26, 2007
More Medication Down a Horse's Nose
I got so excited thinking about what a horse might do if someone poured a noxious mixture down its nose that I decided to try to translate a couple more sections of KTU 1.85. But before I could do anything more, Jim Getz of Ketuvim tells me in a comment about Chaim Cohen and Daniel Sivan's, The Ugaritic hippiatric texts: a critical edition. And while I am checking to see how best to get my hands on that, Loren Fisher sends me an email mentioning his paper, "From Ugarit to Gades: Mediterranean Veterinary Medicine." Now not knowing about Cohen and Sivan is a significant oversight, not knowing about my graduate school teacher's paper is nearly a crime. There are at least two excuses for these oversights. First, there was a thirty-year window spanning the dates of publication of these two works in which I was not involved in the study of things Ugaritic on a regular basis. Second, the nature of a blog, even when used as a vehicle for my kind of abnormal interests, allows a casualness that other forms of expression distain. This second excuse may provide a starting place for a good discussion of the utility and formality of blogs. On the other hand, without my previous post I would still be ignorant of these important works.
This project started out as a translation exercise with references to Pardee's book. I have decided to expand it to include references, where appropriate, to Cohen and Sivan and Fisher. That said I still see this as a translation exercise. I may post on the larger issues regarding these texts near the end of the series. Having looked at Cohen and Sivan and Fisher, I might have done a few things differently in my translation of KTU1.85:1-4 but, for now, I will simply plow ahead with the next two sections.
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]
5) k . ḫr . śśw . mģmģ . w . bṣql . ʿrgz
6) ydk . aḥdh . w . yṣq . b . aph
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7) w . ḫr . śśw . ḫmdrṯ . w . ṯqd . mr
8) ydk . aḥdh . w . yṣq . b . aph
When a horse convulses (?), one crushes MĠMĠ (likely some kind of plant) and BṢQL cRGZ (a BṢQL measure of some kind of nut[?]) together and pours it into its nose.Alternatively, (when) a horse convulses (?), one crushes ḪMDRṮ (again, some kind of plant, grain?) and bitter almond together and pours it into its nose.
What is with all this pouring stuff into a horse's nose? Every one of the treatments proscribed on this tablet involves pouring something or other down a horse's nose. And I'll bet the horse didn't like it one bit.
While I do not plan to post detailed translation notes, a few comments may be in order. Citing an Arabic cognate, Pardee, 51, translates ḫr "hennit (?) (neigh). Cohen and Sivan's, 18, suggest, "discharges a putrid liquid." They cite Akkadian ḫarāru/arāru, which in some medical contexts means "to discharge a putrid liquid." But ḫarāru can also mean "to suffer cramps" or "convulse." For little reason other than to be a contrarian, I went with "convulse." While chronic neighing may be a malady, occasional neighing hardly seems to need a cure. I like Cohen and Sivan's suggestion that bṣql is a unit of measure. Their strongest argument is the use of st with ʿrgz in line 10. On the other hand, I prefer Pardee's, 53, suggestion that ʿrgz is a nut.
There are several things of interest in these two sections. First, both sections prescribe different treatment for the same ailment, whatever that ailment may exactly be. Does this indicate that this tablet or its vorlage is a composite from various other written sources? I think so; but I will discuss this some other time.
Second, the Hebraists may find that the Ugaritic ṯqd . mr seems somewhat familiar. The Biblical Hebrew words שָׁקֵד and מַר, while they do not appear together, are still familiar: מַר perhaps more so than שָׁקֵד. The use of מַר in Proverbs 27:7, where it applies to food, is of particular interest. It would be even more interesting if the context was medicinal but it isn't. However, according to the Pardee, 56, n 173, the Syriac Book of Medicines, I, 53 has šgd' mryr', "the bitter almond."
Third, the text maintains the same structure that was evident in the first section and these two sections throughout the remainder of the document:
1) Symptom
2) Treatment
2a) Components and preparation
2b) Administration of medication
I may address this in more detail later. My structure is a little more findly tuned than of Cohen and Savin's, 48-50 and Fisher's, 210, tri-part structure. They take my 2a) and 2b) to be at the same level as 1).
On the verbs and the way I translate them, see my previous post.
References:
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
Posted by Duane Smith at July 26, 2007 8:05 PM | Read more on Ugarit |
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Comments
You know, I was going to bring Fischer's Maarav article, but I thought you'd know about it. I'm pretty sure the retribution for not noting a former professor in a blog is less than a current adviser in your dissertation ;-)
In regards to structure, I like Jean Bottéro's idea of seeing material as diverse as Hammurapi's Laws and the Šumma Izbu series as deriving from larger ANE scribal/wisdom practices. (The idea is found in his Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods.) I think it helps to explain the presence of this list at Ugarit.
Posted by: Jim Getz at July 27, 2007 7:50 AM
Jim,
At last, you bring up something that I do know about, Jean Bottéro's idea, and planned to address after I finished the translations.
Posted by: Duane at July 27, 2007 8:26 AM
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