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October 8, 2007
Nine Years of Peace and Abundance
I found this Hittite song while checking out the new things on ABZU. I don't read Hittite, at least not for public consumption, so what you see below is my translation of Jean-François Blam's French translation of the Song of Lamma from the Kumarbe Cycle.
For 9 years, LAMMA was king of heaven.
And during those years, savage(?) wolves (and) robbers (?) did not exist.
In the place (?) of savageness(?), was soup(?) from barley flour gruel.
In the place (?) of rain, he made rain of tawal and walhi (to drink).
And at night he took that [. . .]
and he took some butter. [. . .] which is kept in place,
[. . .] he took, and in the door [. . .] he [. . .] the food (?).
[Mountain (?)] streams (with) beer (and ) wine;
valleys and [. . .] flowing (with) running torrents.
Then humankind [was comfortably (?)] and among complete abundance.
To learn more about the song and the Kumarbe Cycle checkout Blam's paper. You ask me why I decided to post this song. I'm not sure. But streams of beer and wine sounded like a good thing (if taken in moderation of course.) I'm not so sure about that barley gruel. Since no one knows what tawal and walhi are, it's hard to tell if we'd think they are good but in this song they certainly are.
Posted by Duane Smith at October 8, 2007 8:10 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
I was curious about why _nine_ was chosen as the length of reign because I immediately thought of the uniquely Indo-European analogy between *newn "nine" and *newos "new".
Sure enough, in the pdf you offer it states: "Le règne de Tešub doit suivre (de neuf ans aussi ?), symbolisant un nouveau cycle temporel; [...]" (pp.8,9) Interesting.
Posted by: Glen Gordon at October 8, 2007 9:47 PM
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