The Meaning of Sacred Names and Babylonian Scholarship: The Gula Hymn and Other Works (Dubsar, 25)

00This book explores the remarkable ways by which Babylonian scholars in the second and first millennia BCE understood the names of their gods and goddesses and the places sacred to them in a wide spectrum of texts, ranging from explanatory lists to great religious works. Developing and expounding their religious thinking, these extraordinary scholars elucidated the meaning of sacred names, both obvious and hidden, by etymological and other means, using great erudition, sophistication and invention. Using a substantial text corpus, this study enlarges on the understanding of the ancients? explanatory approach, which has been previously observed by modern scholars in individual works. The compositions examined here display scholarship that is erudite and highly inventive, making flexible associations in the search for meaning. Tantalising indications of the influence of the spoken word can perhaps be detected in this scholarly written tradition. While previous studies have focussed on the etymological approach of this form of scholarship, this book demonstrates that other, less common, speculative methods are also at work. The detailed classification of the scholars? speculative methods may inform and provoke further analysis of Babylonian scholarship, a field which is not confined to the explanation of sacred names but has wider application, most particularly in the lexical corpus and the omen tradition and in commentary texts. It is a key tool in the quest for meaning which characterises Babylonian thought.00At the center of the analysis is the extensively annotated edition of the Gula Hymn, which is rich in scientific speculation. This literary text has first been identified by W.G. Lambert as a coherent composition; it combines the tablets KAR 109 + KAR 343 published by E. Ebeling and the tablets K 232 + K 3371 + K 13776 of the British Museum's Kouyunjik Collection.0 Table of Contents 7 Preface and acknowledgements 11 1. Introduction 15 1.1 Names 16 1.2 Babylonian speculative scholarship 18 1.3 The Gula hymn 20 1.4 Implications and conclusions 22 2. Babylonian speculative scholarship 23 2.1 Intellectual background 23 2.1.1 Lexical tradition 24 2.1.2 Bilingual translations 25 2.1.3 Omen tradition 26 2.2 Commentary texts 27 2.3 Sacred names and speculative scholarship 29 2.4 Ancient evidence 30 2.4.1 Expository texts 30 2.4.2 Explanatory works 32 2.4.3 Commentary texts 36 2.4.4 Akkadian expressions 37 2.4.5 Speculative interpretation in the Old Babylonian period 39 2.5 Modern scholarship 41 2.6 Text corpus 45 3. Speculative scholarship in the text corpus 51 3.1 The speculative techniques 51 3.1.1 Translation 52 3.1.2 Free rendering 53 3.1.3 Speculative interpretation 55 3.2 The speculative methods 66 3.2.1 Translation of individual elements 67 3.2.2 Speculative translation 72 3.2.3 Free rendering and free association 73 3.2.4 Free handling of order 77 3.2.5 Not all elements used 79 3.2.6 Determinative given equivalence 80 3.2.7 Element interpreted as determinative 83 3.2.8 Form freedom 84 3.2.9 Plural freely inferred 89 3.2.10 Emesal 90 3.2.11 Homophony 93 3.2.12 Polyvalence 98 3.2.13 Homophony and polyvalence together 101 3.2.14 Akkadian homophony 105 3.2.15 Near-homophony 110 3.2.16 Vowels 111 3.2.17 Consonantal groups 114 3.2.18 Part only of element used 118 3.2.19 Contrived orthography 119 3.2.20 Different elements, single equivalence 137 3.2.21 Repeated use of elements 137 3.2.22 Reduplicated elements 144 3.2.23 Abbreviation 146 3.2.24 Phonological reversal 148 3.2.25 Graphic interpretation 149 3.2.26 Older forms 156 3.2.27 Multiple possibilities 157 4. The Gula hymn 161 4.1 The texts 161 4.2 The overlap 163 4.3 Overview of the Gula hymn 167 4.3.1 Synopsis of the Gula hymn 168 4.3.2 Themes and Motifs in the Gula hymn 169 4.3.3 The Gula hymn as a literary and scholarly composition 173 4.4 The context of the Gula hymn 175 4.5 Date of composition 178 5. The Gula hymn: Critical edition 181 5.1 The Manuscripts 181 5.1.1 K 232+3371+13776 (Ms. A) 181 5.1.2 VAT 9670 + VAT 9931 (KAR 109+343) (Ms. B) 183 5.1.3 BM 36333 (Ms. a) 184 5.1.4 BM 34399 (Ms. b) 184 5.1.5 BM 37616 (Ms. c) 185 5.1.6 BM 75974 (Ms. d) 186 5.1.7 BM 76319 (Ms. e) 187 5.1.8 BM 68611 (Ms. f) 187 5.2 Table of Manuscripts and earlier editions 188 5.3 Introduction to the text of the Gula hymn 190 5.3.1 The Manuscripts and the text of the Gula hymn 190 5.3.2 Textual variations and orthography 190 5.3.3 Logographic writing 192 5.3.4 Forms 194 5.4 Transliteration and Translation of the Gula hymn 196 5.5 Commentary 226 6. Babylonian speculative scholarship in the Gula hymn 339 6.1 Analysis: Speculative interpretation in the Gula hymn 340 6.2 Encoded names 386 6.3 Overview: Speculative techniques and methods in the Gula hymn 393 6.3.1 Akkadian homophony 395 6.3.2 Near-homophony 396 6.3.3 Unusual writings 398 6.3.4 Graphic interpretation 400 6.3.5 Other features and speculative methods 405 7. Implications and conclusions 407 7.1 Babylonian speculative scholarship 407 7.1.1 A written phenomenon? 409 7.1.2 Were there any limits? 413 7.2 The Gula hymn 416 7.3 Babylonian speculative scholarship and Jewish scholarship 419 7.4 The meaning of biblical names – Babylonian parallels? 423 7.5 Conclusion 427 Appendix 1 Copy of BM 34399 (Sp. 518) 431 Appendix 2 Temples and shrines found only in the Gula hymn 433 Bibliographical and other abbreviations 435 Bibliography 439 Index 457