156 JASTROW— THE SIGN AND NAME [April 25, 



Other hand, is marked by its rapid and irregular course and I accord- 

 ingly propose the equation Gu-Ud = sahdtu — a common value of 

 the compound ideogram in " liver " divination texts in the sense of 

 " hinder, check, restrain. "^- 



Assuming the adjective formation sahtu from this stem, the 

 " checked " one as the designation of this planet would form a com- 

 panion piece to kaimanu, the " regular " one. In contrast to kai- 

 manii " regular," the designation sahtu would, naturally, convey the 

 notion of a body checked and restrained and therefore " irregular " 

 in its motion. ^^ 



'^ Cf. Jastrow, II., p. 366, note 9. 



*^ The gloss in Hesychius according to which (ieMliaroq is in Babylonian 

 the " fire " star cannot be explained as Jensen " Kosmologie," p. 97, proposes, 

 since he starts from the false assumption— since abandoned by him — that 

 hibbu — the Lu-Bat par excellence is Mars, whereas it is Mercury. That 

 fiEAeliarog designates Mars is however no doubt correct and since the com- 

 mon ideographic designation for Mars is Zal-Bat — the addition of a-nu 

 being a phonetic complement to suggest the phonetic reading mustabarru 

 mutanu, "the one satiated with death" — the correction oi lie?iit3aTog to ^s^iitSaTog 

 suggests itself as a simple solution of the problem. 



