Girra and Elamātum

[nocodeyv]

Hi Enenuru,

I recently came across references to the constellation Elamātum, and the myth "Girra and Elamātum" while reading through Gavin White's "Babylonian Star-Lore" and was curious if anyone had a copy of the myth, or access to one. I haven't been able to find a translation of it outside of academic journals, none of which I have membership with. Short of that, could anyone explain the basic outline of the myth for me? It's one I haven't encountered anywhere else, and my curiosity is getting the better of me.

[us4-he2-gal2]

I had never heard of this work, or of Gavin White, and the reason of course is that he is an independent writer, probably doing a better job of engaging the public than any academic since academia fails at this. Of course the question is, does White succeed at writing a work with real scholarly depth? I'm not ruling that out, just out of hand, just because he comes from the outside. While the authors biography isn't confidence inspiring, his bibliography seems quite reasonable, if he has made good use of it.



As for this myth, Girra and Elamātum, I have never heard of it. If you suspect it may be treated in any journal in particular, let me know which ones and I can provide them.

[nocodeyv]

Thanks for the reply. I was also uncertain of White and his book. I haven't read it from cover-to-cover yet, so I can't make a definitive comment on it, but he does have an extensive section on citations, notes, and reference material (more than just on Solaria, which I was unaware of until you linked it above). None-the-less, I'd also never heard of the myth and was suspicious. So far the only place I've found the myth available is a book called "Anatolian Studies" by Christopher Walker. There's a Jstor abstract here: www.jstor.org/stable/3642703?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents , but I'm not entirely sure what creating an account there entails. Is it open to non-academics and non-students?

[santakku]

Never heard of it either, but tracked it down to a BM object: www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=792265&partId=1&searchText=78962&page=1

No CDLI entry, but that link to Walker appears to be the full (if short) text, no? It's an article dealing with one short text. Not quite sure what you're looking for in the text, but am happy to help with any questions. I won't know the answers, but can tell you how to find out! My quick glance showed it did contain references to stars, including one of Elam. But what information were you looking for?

[hukkana]

I have the entire article dealing with the surviving saved off of Jstor.

Attachments:

[nocodeyv]

Hukkana, thanks! This is excellent.

Santakku, my interest was primarily out of curiosity this time. I'm generally familiar with the myths from Mesopotamia. I hadn't ever heard of "Girra and Elamātum" though, and wanted to have it on hand while I made my way through Gavin White's book.

Edit to add: an additional note about Elamātum, should anyone else, like me, know nothing about her. According to this text, she was killed by Girra, and tablet 5 of AN=ANUM, line 235, lists her as a daughter of Ereshkigal.

[hukkana]

Spoilers : P I've been making my way through the An Anum at my own pace as no one's done a full online annotated translation of the whole thing yet.

And no problem, I too enjoy the obscure myself. Not sure what is exactly obscure as certain apparently less obscure documents are also not easily available online, like the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sim.

[nocodeyv]

May 31, 2016 15:46:56 GMT -5 hukkana said:

Spoilers : P I've been making my way through the An Anum at my own pace as no one's done a full online annotated translation of the whole thing yet.

And no problem, I too enjoy the obscure myself. Not sure what is exactly obscure as certain apparently less obscure documents are also not easily available online, like the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sim.

Hopefully it's not too much of a request, but, you wouldn't by chance happen to have your work on the An=Anum list available anywhere, would you? I don't have any formal training in the languages of Mesopotamia, so my notes on the list are cobbled together with a little help from the online Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (PSD). I'd love to have a more formal translation / notes though.

[hukkana]

Well I'm actually using the PSD version of the list, nothing much else beyond google really.