BALAG

^mulBALAG is a Mesopotamian asterism. With unclear identification, it is not certain what type of asterism (likely a constellation). It occurs only once ca. 1700 BCE, in the lexical list the Old Babylonian Nippur forerunner to Urra XXII (MSL XI 108: 404, Horowitz 2005: 166) between ‘The Snake’ and ‘’The Scorpion.’ ྭ

Dictionary

Kurtik with Hilder, Hoffmann, Horowitz, Kim

The two bright stars Vega and Antares rising over Babylon 1250 BCE (Stellarium). Antares rises prior to Vega. This effect is even stronger in the 3rd millennium.

= "Lyra (Harp)"; in [G. 3] ^mulAB₂.BIR₃(??); this appears to be a constellation, since in the list of star names before and after it come the names of constellations, the identification is unclear.

Pronunciation: The final ‘G’ was pronounced in the original Sumerian something akin to English ‘ng’ or Spanish ‘ñ’ as in ‘señor.’

Gabbay 2019: 133 n. 7, in his discussion of the ancient Sumerian stringed 'instruments' points out that the name of the Sumerian BALAG is onomatopoetic for the sound one makes when plucking a stringed instrument such as a harp or lyre. In later times BALAG came to be a name for a drum (Gabbay 2019).

An identification with what would later become classical Lyra seems questionable: The Lyra-region is known as ^mulUZ₃, 'The She-Goat' in later Sumerian and Akkadian sources. BALAG is listed before The Scorpion, but the brightest star of the classical Lyra (Vega) rises and culminates after the brightest star of The Scorpion (Antares) in -2nd millennium Mesopotamia, and these two stars are separated by roughly 70° (Vega rises in the northeast, Antares in southeast). If BALAG was related to Lyra, it underwent transformations and shifts in the sky.

In fact, the constellation name ^mulUZ₃ was already in use at the time of the Nippur Forerunner where ^mulBALAG occurs (Horowitz 2005: 169). This suggests that ^mulBALAG may have been an asterism within a larger 'The She-Goat' constellation, and so that the name ^mulBALAG was already falling out of use by the early second millennium BCE. Greek sources only start in early first millennium, so transfer can neither be proven nor disproven, and the ^mulBALAG equally likely identified with different areas.

On the basis of the single attested occurance of the star name, no progress can be made on identifying which stars might have formed the ^mulBALAG-asterism.

Sources	Identifications
Lexic. texts. Unilingual Sumerian lists of stars from Nippur: mulbalag [MSL XI, 108:404].

 II. Deity and symbol.

The sacred lyre as a musical instrument has been known since the Early Dynastic period [Borovskaya 1997; Stauder 1972-75]. Many Mesopotamian gods had lyres. During the Ur III dynastic and later periods, lyres played important roles during temple rituals in Nippur and other cities. The name was recorded often without the determinative d [PSD II, B 75-78; Sallaberger I, 100]. Which lyre served as the basis for this constellation is unknown.

Historical Dictionaries

Kurtik (2022)

Gössmann (1950)

= «Лира (Арфа)»; в [G. 3] mulAB2.BIR3(??); по-видимому, это созвездие, поскольку в списке названий звезд до и после него идут названия созвездий, отождествление неясно. I. Источники. Лексич. тексты. Одноязычные шумерские списки звезд из Ниппура: mulbalag [MSL XI, 108:404]. II. Божество и символ. Священная лира как музыкальный инструмент известна с раннединастического периода [Боровская 1997; Stauder 1972–75]. Лиры имелись у многих месопотамских богов. В эпоху III династии Ура и позднее они играли важную роль в храмовом ритуале в Ниппуре и других городах. Название фиксировалось часто без детерминатива d [PSD II, B 75–78; Sallaberger I, 100]. Какая именно лира послужила основой для данного созвездия, неизвестно.

Example

References

• Kurtik's references