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August 11, 2007

A Scratching Horse with Mange (Maybe)

Finally, I turn to the last section of the Ugaritic veterinary text KTU 1.85. As with the section discussed the other day, there are major problems with the text of this section. But these problems are, on the surface, quite different. In the KTU 1.85:23-29 section we had to deal with three severely lacunose tablets that seemed to meld together into a reasonable restoration of a unified composite text. But here, in the section delineated by KTU 1.85:30-32, there are three tablets that seem to have the same general content and subject but also clearly don't say the same thing or at least don't say it in the same way. I have prepared a PDF file with the readings of these three tablets for this last section of the text. I will translate and, for now, discuss this section as if Cohen and Sivan's composite text represents a restoration of something that may have once been. But, in case you don't want to read the PDF file and study it with some care, I should tell you clearly that Cohen and Sivan's composite text is not a reconstructed version of any of the tablets for this section. This composite text uses KTU 1.85's line numbering for reference only and is in general closest to the reading of that tablet. In a latter post, I will try to deal with the implications of this mess.

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

Cohen and Sivan's composite text reads:

30) k . yraš . w . ykhp . mid . [śśw]
31) dblt . yṯnt . wṣmqm . yṯ[nm]
32) w. qmḥ . bql . tdkn . aḥdh . w . yṣq . b . aph

When (a horse [śśw]) gets mange (?) and scratches (?) incessantly, old (yṯnt) fig-cakes and old (yṯnm) raisins and groat flour must be crushed (tdkn) together and one should pour it into its nose.

In a comment to an earlier post, Glen Gordon of Paleoglot asked that I provide a word for word translation as an aid to those who do not know Ugaritic. I find doing so awkward and sometimes misleading; however, I have tried to accommodate Glen's request by inserting Ugaritic words after their near (always only "near") semantic equivalent in the translation when the translation significantly displaces that near equivalent. I hope this helps. Also, because of a particular complexity in the grammar of this section, I have used the English word "should" to indicate a jussive mood and "must" to indicate an energic mood. I have not directly indicated the jussive moods in my translations of the other sections.

We have seen most of the vocabulary in this last section before in other sections of the text or we know it from other sources within Ugaritic literature. Three words, however, do need additional comment. The verb in the second part of the symptom, ykhp . mid, is otherwise unknown and there is not an obvious cognate. I have chosen "scratches" following Cohen and Sivan, 39, because it fits with my (and their) interpretation of the first half of the symptom. Aartun, 94, n. 940, suggested this meaning. I have not been able to find his promised etymology. mid, of course, denotes "much," which in this context is correctly understood by Cohen and Sivan as meaning "incessantly." The adverb mid suggests that ykhp on less frequent occasions in normal behavior. If you prefer to follow Pardee, 26 and 67, translate the compound symptom, ". . . has a headache and is wholly prostrate, . . ." Like Cohen and Sivan, I do not fine the proposed Akakdian cognate of ykhp, kâpu, acceptable. kâpu, "to oppress" and kâpu, "to bend," (they are likely homonyms) both occur very infrequently but, more important, neither one is ever used in a medical context. My discussion of KTU 1.85:18-19 explains why I follow Cohen and Sivan, 32-33, in understanding yraš as meaning something like "gets mange."

bql in the expression qmḥ . bql very likely means "groats" or perhaps as Pardee, 68, would have it, "malt." Akkadain buqli means "dried malt" or the like. See CAD K, 341 where buqli is cited in Akkadian hippiatric texts that deal with the care of healthy horses.

While my own translations have not always expressly indicated it, all the verbs seen so far are in the components and preparation subsections and the administration subsections are best understood as jussives. Until now, the components and preparation subsection of every section has used ydk, "one should crush." It is no doubt in third person singular. Unlike Cohen and Savin, 44, I do not think it is necessarily passive. For reasons I will discuss in a later post, I do not find the argument that it comes at the end of the list of components convening. However, in this last section, we see tdkn, a third person plural in the energic mood and it may well be a passive. Note also that KTU 1.97:4' has td[ where KTU 1.85:17 has ydk. The root, as suggested by Cohen and Sivan, is either *dwk or *dkk. Note that KTU 1.85:32 lacks any verb in this place and seems to confound the missing verbal form in the components and preparation subsection with yṣq in the administrative subsection. I have an idea about all this but it too will have to wait for a few days.

Does the text really end with this section? Yes. After KTU 1.85:32, the remaining seven-eights or so of the reverse of the tablet is blank. After this section, about the same amount of the reverse of KTU 1.71 is blank. After this section, about a third of KTU 1.72 is blank. So if there were more to the text there was room to write some or all of it on these tablets. KTU 1.97 is a very small fragment and no part of this last section (or whatever may or may not have come after it) survives. Is it possible that some Vorlage had more? Sure, but based on what we now have, there is no way of guessing what it may have said, even if we can be fairly certain of its structure.

References:

Posted by Duane Smith at August 11, 2007 1:08 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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