Translatio CTH 581.29

The Corpus of Hittite Divinatory Texts (HDivT)

Digital Edition and Cultural Historical Analysis

Andrea Trameri (Hrsg.)

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Citatio: Andrea Trameri (Hrsg.), hethiter.net/: CTH 581.29 (TRde 2025-08-05)

index introductio imagines || partitura transcriptio translatio

CTH 581.29

Letter of Nani and Tuwawa to the Queen, with bird oracle report

translatio

Abschnitte

1obv. §1. Address formula

2obv. §2. Bird oracle reports

3rev. §3´. Unclear (fragmentary)

Abschnitt 1ID=1: obv. §1. Address formula
1ID=1	--	Say to the Queen, our Lady:
2ID=2	--	thus (say) Nāni and Tūwawa, your [ser]vants.
Abschnitt 2ID=2: obv. §2. Bird oracle reports
3ID=3	--	Away from Ḫariyaša:1
4ID=4	--	An aramnant- bird [came/flew] tar(uya)li- diagonally.
5ID=5	--	A ḫaštapi- bird [came] in front from the favorable side.
6ID=6	--	A ‘fox-bird’ flew tar(uya)li- diagonally.
7ID=7	--	An [āl]iya- bird [came] GUN, lengthways from the favorable side.
8ID=8	--	[A ‘wol]f-bird’2 came in front from the unfavorable side.
9ID=9	--	We kept watching …3 [ … ]:
10ID=10	--	two aramna[nt- birds …] took … […]
11ID=11	--	and (came) in front […] from the favorable side.
12ID=12	--	An ālliya- bird fl[ew] tar(uya)li-
13ID=13	--	[… a ‘w]olf-bird’, however, in front […]
14ID=14	--	Two ḫalwašši- birds […]
15ID=15	--	[…]
obv. breaks off
Abschnitt 3ID=3: rev. §3´. Unclear (fragmentary)
16ID=16	--	[…] the palace […].
end of text

Possibly, the letter itself, or its message, is what is being “(sent) away from Ḫariyaša”. Perhaps more likely, the sentence refers to a location, out of town, where the augurs made the observations: “(as follows, is the observation made) away from Ḫariyaša”. For a parallel formulation, see also KBo 15.28 obv. 4 (CTH 195). Both instances exclude, in my view, that the sentence belongs to the description of the individual flight of the following bird (i.e. “the aramnant- bird [flew] away from Ḫariyaša ….”, as e.g. Rieken E. apud Müller-Karpe A. – Müller-Karpe V. 2009a, 213). See also KuT 49 obv. 19, lo. e. 30 (CTH 190.1) for a similar usage in reference to the location where the observation takes place.

This is the first attestation of this kind of bird. The reading is certain, in consideration of the context and the better preserved form in obv. 13.

Analysis of the broken chain is difficult; […]-man=ma=an or […]-man=man?

Editio ultima: Traductionis 2025-08-05