,
16 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Beautiful lunar eclipse tonight in Vancouver, a rare clear night let me spy it out of our apartment window. What follows bellow is a short thread on how a Mesopotamian astrologer might interpret this eclipse...
Photo credit u/RPG_Vancouver on r/Vancouver reddit.com/r/vancouver/co…
Photo credit u/RPG_Vancouver on r/Vancouver reddit.com/r/vancouver/co…
Before we get into the actual omens, the short take away... bad news for the East, and just bad news in general... but that's part and parcel for eclipse omens. Hence why the ancient Mesopotamians had handy rituals to dispel the evil of an eclipse.
The omens are pulled from Professor Francesca Rochberg's "Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enūma Anu Enlil". She collected and published all of the lunar eclipse tablets from the important astrological handbook Enūma Anu Enlil.
Babylonians were primarily interested in a couple of key features of eclipses... where the shadow entered and exited the moon, the time and date of the eclipse, and other features like its color, and which way the wind was blowing.
To figure out what the modern date is in the Babylonian calendar we can use Professor Mathieu Ossendijver's handy tables: academia.edu/1529241/Babylo…
That makes it the 14th day of the 10th month Ṭebētu.
That makes it the 14th day of the 10th month Ṭebētu.
Remember that the Babylonian calendar was a lunar calendar based on the appearance of the new moon so lunar eclipses, which only occur at the full moon, usually happen in the middle of the Babylonian month.
Just a quick key for reading the following omens... "Subartu" is a land vaguely north-east of Mesopotamia, "Amurru" is a land to the east, "Adad" is the storm god, and "Anšan" was a capital of Elam (in Iran) to the south-east.
EAE 15 ¶ 4 line 4 (pg. 73)
If an eclipse begins in the east and clears in the west: Downfall of Subartu; it (the evil of the eclipse) will not approach Amurru.
If an eclipse begins in the east and clears in the west: Downfall of Subartu; it (the evil of the eclipse) will not approach Amurru.
EAE 16 ¶ 10 line 12 (pg. 104)
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th of Tebēṭu and lasts through the watch: The land will experience hardship.
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th of Tebēṭu and lasts through the watch: The land will experience hardship.
EAE 18 ¶ 10 line 2 (pg. 149)
If an eclipse occurs in Ṭebētu in the middle watch, those who carry the sūnu-weapon will enter the palace.
If an eclipse occurs in Ṭebētu in the middle watch, those who carry the sūnu-weapon will enter the palace.
EAE 18 ¶ 10 line 5 (pg. 149)
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th of Ṭebētu, the god (i.e. pestilence) will ravage, Adad will trample...
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th of Ṭebētu, the god (i.e. pestilence) will ravage, Adad will trample...
EAE 21 ¶ 10 (pg. 246)
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th day of Ṭebētu, and it begins in the east and clears in the west; it begins in the evening watch and clears in the middle watch. You observe his eclipse and bear in mind the east...
If an eclipse occurs on the 14th day of Ṭebētu, and it begins in the east and clears in the west; it begins in the evening watch and clears in the middle watch. You observe his eclipse and bear in mind the east...
(contd) ...The prediction is given for the king of Anšan and Subartu: The throne of Anšan and Subartu will be destroyed.
So now you can pretend to be an advisor to the king, if you had seen this eclipse and had the relevant omens, which would you mention and how would you interpret it? We have ample records of advisors to the Neo-Assyrian kings doing exactly this!
The astrologers kept watch night after night and developed predicative methods so that they could be ready with the appropriate rituals and materials prior to the eclipse actually occurring.
For more background on eclipses see this great thread by fellow assyriologists @Moudhy
