Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson].

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943
Date:
[1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    144/150 (page 30)
    thrown away, like a cup of sour wine (vinegar) thrown away. . . . [Of these twain] Nergal between them a boundary [hath set] ... The charm is not . . . (?)1 : it is the charm of Ea [and Marduk] . . . [the charm of Nin-aha- kuddu] the mistress of charm; Gula, [quicken the] recovery, thy gift (?). Recite the charm. (PI. 10, 1.) 48. [Incantation for a] Sick Eye. 49. ... as thou tiest it thou shalt recite the charm, on his eye . . . 50. [Charm.] (As in 9, 41-42.) ... of Gula . . . “ [Whom shall I send to the daughter of Anu] of Heaven, Col. iii, 1. that they may bring me their ewers of hulalu, their basins of bright lapis, that they may gather me the waters of the sea, the broad ocean, whereon no woman in her courses hath descended,2 wherein no separated woman hath washed her hands, that they may cast them for me and cool the blazing fire in his eyes ? ” 3 The charm is not . . . (?), it is the charm of Ea and Marduk, the charm of Damu and Gula, the charm of Nin-aha-kuddu, the mistress of charm. 0 Gula, quicken the recovery, thy gift (?)! Recite the charm. 1 I am still uncertain whether my old translation of this passage (PSBA, 1908, 149) is as far out as critics say. It is now customary to leave it untranslated. Langdon (PBE. xxxi, 56) gives the various forms in which it occurs, and ia ut-tu (which omits un at the end) is fairly common. But the Malay parallel in my Semitic Magic, xlviii, is suggestive. 2 Variant urrusti la usirru (CT. xxiii, 3, 8). 3 Part duplicate of my copy of sa.gal.la, CT. xxiii, 2, 5: added to by E., xiii, 135. D(t)allu (E. “ Turverschluss ” wrongly, comparing BSGW. 70 (1918), 5, p. 27 x) is a vessel, as has long been known (MA. 1159). Br. 2579, duk ( = karpatu) . dal — dallu = naman . . . The water is to be gathered up, and hence “ door-locks ” are ridiculous. Karpatu is the cup (or basin ?) into which the water is poured : dallu I take to be the modern Ar. delleh, a spouted copper jug, now used for coffee (see my article JRAS. 1923, 240, No. 15). More¬ over, it varies with Jcannu in 1. 20 below. This word is probably connected with Arab. 41-AS “ a phial ♦4 Haristu (varying with urrusti, CT. xxiii, 3, 8) is from harasu (MA. 341 ; Del. HWB. 293) “ hold back ”, i.e. the woman held back under restriction, tabu, Heb. : Ebeling translates urrusti “ eine Schmutzige ”. Musukkatu is from the similar root -pD (HWB. 497, originally “ shut up ”, Arab. dU will equally mean a woman segregated. Ebeling has understood it correctly as a menstruating woman, but his “ worth ‘ sehr schlimme ’ ” from msk is impossible for musukkatu. Haristu has a special section (V R. 18 o-d, 19-21, MA. 342), and there is even a Jcannu sa haristi (V R. 15, d 47). The woman and maid “ with unwashed hands ” (see my Devils, ii, 139, and Semitic Magic, 117 ff.) are always a source of pollution, the reference being euphemistically to menstruation.