F.

W.20030/3, W.20030/5, W.20030/98 (End of Mîs-pî ritual)

(transliteration and translation W.R. Mayer, OrNs 47 (1978) 443-458)

1. When the Work of a God (šipri ili) is finished: in an appropriate month, on a favorable day,

before Ea, Šamaš and Marduk......... the Great Gods, the mašmaš (sings ?)

.................in the night ...........you sweep the floor, in the direction of.....you turn for Anu, Ellil

Ninmah, Ea, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, Marduk, (Ištar ?), Sirius, Venus,

5. Saturn, Mercury, Mars and Nusku, making offerings to them.

You offer a perfect Sheep, presenting shoulder portion, fatty tissue and roast meat,

libate premium beer, wine, milk and............................. you light 14 piles of wood,

scatter incense of all types upon them........................., you bind on a lamb,

sing the lamentation "It Touches the Earth Like a Storm" and the eršemma "umun barakuga." Thereupon

10. you perform a sacrifice for................here, offer a Sheep, present shoulder portion, fatty tissue

and roast meat, light a pile of wood, bind on a lamb

sing the lamentation ur-saggal annišermalla illa and the eršemma ušum gud na-a.

In the morning you set up 3 seats for Ea, Šamaš, and Marduk,

raise a ...........-curtain around them, set up 3 tables there, carry emmerwheat-bread, lay fruitcake, honey, cream,

15. dates, sasqû-flour and .....................there, set up 3 adagurru-vases, put premium beer, wine and milk at the ready,

...............................................all types lay there, scatter grain about, lay goat-hair, white wool, red wool,

combed wool, red tabarru-wool, blue uqnû-wool there; purify with incense of pine-resin

................and fill an unused standing censer with thornbush coals, scatter boxwood (?) thereover,

holding your hand high, scatter it fully on the standing censer, cast ........flour upon the head of a lion (?)

20. offer [the God N.] a sheep, libate.................... over the head of the lion,

cast roast-flour, present shoulder portion, fatty tissue and roast meat, stoke the thornbush- coals upon the standing-censer,

.................................... scatter cedar-dust thereupon, libate premium beer,

wine, milk and.................................., raise a partition, distribute flour.

Thereupon sing the lamentation "Lord, Respected One of Heaven and Earth," and the eršemma dilmun niginna. Thereupon,

25. bring an offering here for this God, offer a Sheep, present shoulder portion, fatty tissue and roast meat

there............... tie a lamb, sing the lamentation "Lord, Respected One of Heaven and Earth,"

and the eršemma dilmun niginna,............... The King and his people preparing

a purification. The God goes to the rivulet that runs by the Temple, and the King takes the hand

of the God, and he recites.......................... The Lamentations-priest sings "Respected One, Manifest One"

30. he takes the hand of the God, and ..................the hand of these Gods. When he enters the High Door of the Temple,

the eršemma ešabhungata...................... At this point the God descends from his position,

you perform ................... a lamentation. You offer a fat Sheep- offering,

............................................................you offer a sheep, present shoulder portion,

fatty tissue and roast meat there, libate premium beer and wine, you perform a lamentation.

35. An eršahunga for the King..............................you recite over the vestment of the King.

You conduct for this God....................................................... by lamentation.

By the rivulet, at this point the God descends from his position, the King and the people speak in the following way:

(text finishes with a colophon stating that it was written by a descendant of Sîn-leqe-unninni, Lamentation-priest of Anu and Antu of Uruk, during the reigns of Antiochus III and his son, 209-190 b.c.e.)