Babylonian-Assyrian Birth-Omens and Their Cultural Significance Part 2

If the foetus has two ears on the right side and none on the left, the boundary city of the enemy will become subject to you.

If the foetus has two ears on the left side and none on the right, your boundary city will become subject to the enemy.

If the foetus has two ears on the right side and one on the left, the land will remain under the control of the ruler.

If the foetus has two ears on the left side and one on the right, the land will revolt.

If within the right ear of the foetus a second ear[62] appears, the ruler will have counsellors.

If within the left ear of the foetus there is a second ear, the counsellors of the ruler will advise evilly.

If behind the right ear of the foetus there is a second ear, the ruler will have counsellors.

If behind the left ear of the foetus there is a second ear, confusion in the land, the land will be destroyed[63].

If a foetus has [four] ears, a king of universal sway will be in the land.

[If a foetus has four ears], two lying in front (and) two in back, the ruler will acquire possessions in a strange country[64].

If behind the right ear, there are two ears, visible on the outside[65], the inhabitants of the boundary city will become subject to the enemy.

If behind the left ear there are two ears visible on the outside, the inhabitants of the boundary city of the enemy will become subject to you.

If a foetus has three ears, one on the left side and two on the right side, the angry G.o.ds will return to the country.

If a foetus has three ears, one on the left side and two on the right, the G.o.ds will kill within the country.

If within the right ear of a foetus there are three ears with the inner sides well formed, the opponent will conclude peace with the king whom he fears, the army of the ruler will dwell in peace with him.

If within the left ear of a foetus there are three ears with the inner sides well formed, thy ally will become hostile.

If behind each of the two ears there are three ears visible on the outside, confusion in the land, the counsel of the land will be discarded, one land after the other will revolt.

If within each of two ears there are three ears visible on the inner side, things will go well with the ruler's army.

If within each of the two ears there are three ears, visible on the outside and the inside, the army of the ruler will forsake him and his land will revolt.

If within each of the two ears there are three ears, visible on the outside and the inside, the army of the ruler will forsake him and his land will revolt.

If the ears of a foetus are choked up[66], in place of a large king a small king will be in the land.

In general, therefore, an excess number of ears points to enlargement, increased power, stability of the government and the like; and this is probably due in part to the a.s.sociation of wisdom and understanding with the ear in Babylonian[67], for as a general thing an excess of organs or of parts of the body is an unfavorable sign, because a deviation from the normal.

In the same way as in the case of the ears, we have birth-omen texts dealing with the head, lips, mouth, eyes, feet, joints, tail, genital organs, hair, horns and other parts of the body[68]. In many of these texts dealing with all kinds of peculiar formations and abnormalities in the case of one organ or one part of the body or the other, a comparison is inst.i.tuted between the features or parts of one animal with those of another and the interpretation is guided by the a.s.sociation of ideas with the animal compared. A moment's reflection will show the importance of this feature in extending the field of observation almost =ad infinitum=.

A lamb born with a large head might suggest a lion, a small long head that of a dog, or a very broad face might suggest the features of a bull. From comparisons of this kind, the step would be a small one to calling a lamb with lion-like features, a lion, or a lamb with features recalling those of a dog, a dog and so on through the list, the interpretations being chosen through the ideas a.s.sociated with the animal in question. A text of this kind[69], of which we have many, reads in part as follows.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, the abandoned weapons will make an attack (again), the king will be without a rival.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but with a head of a 'rain bow'

bird[70], the son will seize the throne of his father.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but (some of) the features are (also) human, the power of the king will conquer a powerful country.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but (some of) the features are those of a lamb, the young cattle will not prosper.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but (some of) the features are those of an a.s.s, severe famine will occur in the country.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but (some of) the features are those of a dog, Nergal[71] will cause destruction.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion but (some of) the features are those of a =khupipi=[72], the ruler will be without a rival and will destroy the land of his enemy.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, but with the mouth of a wild cow, the rule of the king will not prosper.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion but with the mouth of a bull, famine will ensue.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion with the h.o.r.n.y exuberance of an ibex on its face, prices will be lowered[73].

If an ewe gives birth to a lion with the h.o.r.n.y exuberance of an ibex on its face and if the eyes are open[74], prices will be high.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion with fatty flesh on the nose, the land will be well nourished.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, and the right temple is covered with fatty flesh, the land will be richly blessed.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, and the left temple is covered with fatty flesh,--rivalry.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion, and it is covered all over with fatty flesh, the king will be without a rival.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion but without a head[75], death of the ruler.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion with the gorge torn off[76], destruction of the land, the mistress[77] will die.

If an ewe gives birth to a lion with the gorge torn off and a mutilated tail[78], the land [will be destroyed (?)]

From texts like these it would appear that the phrase of 'an ewe giving birth to a lion' had acquired a purely conventional force to describe a lamb whose head or general features suggested those of a lion. It may have come to be used indeed for a newly born lamb of unusually large proportions. Hence one could combine with the description of a lion-lamb such further specifications as that it also suggested human features, or looked like an a.s.s or a dog, or that while it came under the category of a lion-lamb, it yet had some of the features of a normal lamb. At all events we must not credit the Babylonians or a.s.syrians with so absurd a belief as that an ewe could actually produce a lion. Such a supposition is at once disposed of when we come to other texts where we find entries of an ewe producing a whole series of animals--a jackal, dog, fox, panther, hyena, gazelle, etc. and where we must perforce a.s.sume resemblances between a young lamb and the animals in question and not any extravagant views of possible cross-breeding[79]. To clinch the matter, we have quite a number of pa.s.sages in which the preposition 'like' is introduced[80] instead of the direct equation, showing that when the texts speak of an ewe giving birth to a lion, a jackal, a dog, etc., the priests had in mind merely a resemblance as the basis of such statements.

The general idea a.s.sociated with the lion in divination texts is that of power, success, increase and the like. The sign, therefore, of an ewe producing a lion is a favorable one; it is only through attendant circ.u.mstances that the character of the sign is transformed into an unfavorable or partly unfavorable omen. So in case the lion-lamb has a head suggestive of the variegated colors of the rainbow bird, the sign still points to power, but to a power exercised by the crown prince against the father. If some of the features suggest those of an a.s.s or of a dog or of a pig, the ideas a.s.sociated with these animals convert what would otherwise have been a favorable sign into an unfavorable one. The mouth of a wild cow or of a bull, thus interfering with the complete identification of the young lamb as a lion-lamb, similarly, brings about an unfavorable interpretation. Fatty flesh by a natural a.s.sociation points to increased prosperity, while mutilations of the head, tail or of any other part naturally carry with them unfavorable prognostications.

It is interesting to see from a long list of comparisons of a new-born lamb with all kinds of animals[81] the extent to which the a.s.sociation of ideas connected with the animals in question is carried.

If an ewe gives birth to a dog ... the king's land will revolt.

If an ewe gives birth to a beaver[82] (?), the king's land will experience misery.

If an ewe gives birth to a fox, Enlil[83] will maintain the rule of the legitimate king for many years, or[84] the king will strengthen his power.