A New Fragment of the Babylonian Etana Legend 9781463216122

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A N e w Fragment of the Babylonian E t a n a Legend

Analecta Gorgiana

119

Series Editor George Anton Kiraz

Analecta Gorgiana is a collection of long essays and short monographs which are consistently cited by modern scholars but previously difficult to find because of their original appearance in obscure publications. Carefully selected by a team of scholars based on their relevance to modern scholarship, these essays can now be fully utilized by scholars and proudly owned by libraries.

A New Fragment of the Babylonian Etana Legend

Morris Jastrow

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1

gorgias press 2010

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2010 by Gorgias Press LLC

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2010

1

ISBN 978-1-60724-054-9

Printed in the United States of America

ISSN 1935-6854

31 new §u%mtnt of the

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Morris Jastrow, Jr It is a significant testimony to the ingenuity of the lamented GEORGE SMITH and to the fertility of his labors, that scholars, to-day, should still be engaged in following up lines of investigation which he was the first to suggest. Among the many directiona which his 5 activity took, the interpretation of the various legends and myths current among Babylonians and Assyrians gave a stimulus to that branch of cuneiform research which has resulted in the production of a vast mass of literature — much of it valuable. While the Creation stories and the Deluge episode of the Izdubar (or Gilgamos) io epic have naturally absorbed the greater share ofinterest, the minor productions of Babylonian mythology and folk-lore have not been neglected; and among recent contributions, E. T. HARPER'S investigations of the Etana, Zu, Adapa, and Dibbarra legends, published in the second volume of the Beiträge (pp. 390 — 521), are the most notable. 15 By the publications of additional texts and the improved republication of such as were already known through GEORGE SMITH'S Chaldean Genesis, as well as by his excellent translations and interpretations, he has considerably advanced our knowledge of an important section of Babylonian literature. For all that, HARPER will no doubt be the 20 first to acknowledge that much still remains to be done in this field. The texts that form the sources for our knowledge are in a bad state of preservation. It is to be hoped that after Dr. BEZOLD shall have completed his great task of cataloguing the Kouyunjik Collection, more fragments will come to light, and perhaps a fortunate chance 25 will lead to the discovery of duplicate texts beneath the still buried ruins of some Babylonian city. Meanwhile any additional contribution, however insignificant, will surely be welcome to scholars.

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T h r o u g h the kindness of Mr. TALCOTT WILLIAMS, of Philadelphia, 1 am enabled to lay before Assyriologists a new fragment of the Etana series of tablets from the library of Ashurbanabal. Mr. WILLIAMS' father, the late Rev. Dr. W. F. WILLIAMS, who h a p p e n e d to be at Mosul while LAYAKD was conducting his excavations in the mounds opposite the city, came into possession of a n u m b e r of tablets, or rather fragments of tablets, that upon unmistakable evidence came from the rooms in Ashurbanabal's palace where LAYARD made his invaluable find. O n e of these fragments which proved to be part of the Dibbarra legend was published b y the writer some years ago.* A n o t h e r fragment contained a bit of an incantation text, hardly meriting independent publication, but a cast of it was sent to I > BEZOLD in the h o p e that it might be of s o m e service in his important task of joining fragments that belong together. A third, which is now the p r o p e r t y of the Rev. Dr. DWIGHT WHITNEY M ARSII uf Amherst, Mass., and was kindly placed at m y disposal through the mediation of Mr. TALCOTT WILLIAMS,

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