The Legend of the kiškanu

Abstract

In Cuneiform Texts of the British Museum, vol. xvi, 46, 183–204, occurs, in the body of the text of a long incantation, including a legend of the Fire God, Gibil, and the seven devils, the well-known legend of the plant kiškānû, which is otherwise unknown in medical and magical texts. The bilingual text in six long columns has been admirably pieced together by Dr. R. C. Thompson, who also gave an edition in Devils and Evil Spirits, vol. i, 184–201. It had been previously edited in both editions of iv, Rawlinson, pl. 15, but without several duplicates and joins latterly made by Thompson. The lines concerning the giš-kìn = kiškānu plant occur in the middle of Rev. I. A great many editions of this legend have been made; for the literature on earlier editions, see Dhorme's translation in his Choix de Textes Religieux, 98; Ebeling in Gressmann's Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament, 328. All editions suffered from one defect; they were based upon the Accadian text, which is not original and is often an incorrect version of the Sumerian. That the legend is originally of Sumerian origin is clear from the Sumerian tablet from Susa published by Dr. Leon Legrain in Délegation en Perse, xiv, 125, No. 9, and photograph, pi. xi. By comparing the two texts the similarity of phrases and style is at once evident. In contrast to these editions, Mr. C. J. Gadd gave an edition of CT. xvi, 46, in his Sumerian Reading Book, 165, which he correctly based upon the Sumerian text.