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May 25, 2009
Dickless Or Just Impotent?
I normally don't use words like "dickless" here. In fact, I almost never voluntarily use such words at all. Such words do not fall within my abnormal interests. But Akkadian texts do. So I hope you won't mind if I make an exception in this case. If you do mind, I hope you'll think of it as the Akkadian talking and not me. Besides, my hit count is down a little; maybe this will help.
A line in one of the Akkadian prayers I'm working on reads,
ana lā išari/u tanamdin aplu
To the dickless, you give an heir.
Well, that is what I think it means. If you look in any of the various Akkadian dictionaries, you'll find that išaru can mean either "normal, straight" or "penis." Dictionaries give each meaning its own section. Some even have headings like išaru I and išaru II. At one time, they may have even had differing morphologies (išaru and mišaru), even if they are both sometimes represented by the same Sumerogram. GIŠ = išaru meaning "penis" frequently and išaru meaning "normal" occasionally. Yes giš means "penis" in Sumerian. I'm not really suggesting that these homonyms, or should I say homographs, aren't separate lexemes. I do wonder about it but for now, I'm won't, publically, question it more than I already have.
In CAD, lā išaru also has its own section where we are told that the expression means "irregular, abnormal, unjust, polluted, impure." In the specific case of the line I quoted above, CAD tells us it means "impotent." Now I think that is exactly what the expression means. lā is used proclitically to negate the following noun. The question is, do we get to "impotent" by way of not normal or by way of lacking a penis? In fact, as I looked over the examples where CAD wants to render it "not normal" or the like, I think several, but not quite all, of them could as easily mean lacking a penis.
Note to the pedantic: some witnesses read la i-ša-ri and while others read la i-ša-ru. And that isn't the only case of case confusion here. But cofounding case or at least case ending is not very uncommon particularly in late texts or late version of texts.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 25, 2009 4:26 PM | Read more on Akkadian |
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Comments
Interesting prayer. Could it have meant eunuch, or is there another Akkadian word for it?
Posted by: Danny at May 25, 2009 5:17 PM
Tur Sinai in his commentary on Job insists that the ox passing (piel) and it does not fall is not a low-down impure statement - but I expect it is referring to the success or not of hitting the cow and engendering offspring. I have gotten through 7 chapters of Job (15-22) this month wrestling with each Hebrew word to render it in English - I hope I have not missed the mark myself. It is fun but a bit engrossing.
Posted by: Bob MacDonald at May 25, 2009 5:32 PM
I admit to be ignorant about Akkadian but are you sure that the underlying meaning of išaru is not simply "straight" or, as a noun, "something straight" and hence secondarily "erect penis".
If reinterpreted this way, lā išaru would rather refer to "limp dick". Obviously a man who "can't get it up" is going to have a problem producing an heir. You don't have to be a eunich to have a little trouble "down south" afterall. Sounds more like a case of Akkadian erectile dysfunction to me. Get out the bottle of Viagra. Lol.
Posted by: Glen Gordon at May 25, 2009 6:49 PM
Danny,
There is another Akkadian expression that means "eunuch," ša rēši. And in most cases unambiguously so, "May your semen dry up like that of a eunuch (ša rēši) who cannot beget." But his expression is not without its own problems. The same expression stands for a set government officials, sometimes rather high officials, and even solders, not all of whom were necessarily eunuchs. The line I quoted is from the extended beginning of prayer to Shamash. We might call this part of the prayer the adoration. Among other wonderful things, Shamash is reminded that he gives the impotent an heir.
Bob,
My teacher Loren Fisher in his book Rebel Job translates Job 21:11(10)a rather uncontroversially, "The bull has bred and never fails." Many other parts of his translation are more daring and his overall understanding of the book deserves a lot more attention than it has so far gotten. I think Job's Hebrew, taken as a whole, is by a considerable measure the most difficult in the Bible.
Glen,
Yeap! That's likely part of the mix too. I'm not sure these things are at all mutually exclusive.
Posted by: Duane at May 25, 2009 8:57 PM
Alan,
If you see this, don't panic. This translation will not show up in my official work, neither will anything that might point in this direction. I'll let it go by simply citing CAD and AHw along with a short note on the grammar.
Posted by: Duane at May 25, 2009 9:43 PM
I'm still laughing at the idea of GISH being the Sumerogram for penis. I'm sure I've seen this before but I guess didn't pay close attention. It's hilarious.
I'm not worried about the translation!
Posted by: Alan Lenzi at May 26, 2009 9:31 PM
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
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