parû I
2 Lexical
31. Onager-donkey hybrid
OAkkOAkk: Old Akkadian (ca. 2350–2100 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) bēlū pár-e Rashid 1981, 18 v 1 “owners of onager-donkey hybrids”. (Courtesy W. Sommerfeld). new
OBOB: Old Babylonian (ca. 2000–1600 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) ina 1! giš!GIGIR! pa!-ri!-im! ša 2 magarrūša ū[lūma ša k]u!-da-nimₓ ŠI liš[arkibūšin]ātima! ARM 10, 123: 20 ARCHIBAB “let them mount a two-wheeled chariot (pulled) by an onager-donkey-hybrid o[r by a m]ule”. new
OBOB: Old Babylonian (ca. 2000–1600 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) gišGIGIR ša anšepa-re-e ARM 32, 451-452 M.5092 18, 46, 49 ARCHIBAB “chariot (pulled) by onager-donkey hybrids”. Mentioned side by side with gišGIGIR ša anšeku-da-niḫi-a, chariot (pulled) by mules, and chariots pulled by horse. new
32. Mule
MBMB: Middle Babylonian (ca. 1600–1000 BCE) lū sisê lū pa-re-e dannāti ana attartija liqâ WZJ 8, 569: 33 eBL “take either horse or strong mules for my wagon”. Further refs.: CAD parû A c.
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) tabkānī rabûti ša ŠE.PADmeš … ina sisê anšepa-re-e ibilī imērī ušazbilma TCL 3: 263 “I loaded their big stores of barley on horses, mules, camels and donkeys”. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) pa-ra-a akâṣma tibna umalla MesCiv. 25, 414 ii 23 eBL “I skin a mule and fill (its hide) with straw”.
63. Attributive context
3.1. Colors
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) ANŠE.ŠÚ.MULmeš peṣûti RINAP 4, 19 iii 76 RINAP “white mules”. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) pa-re-e bitrumūti AnSt. 7, 128: 40 “dappled mules”.
3.2. Behavior and Physical Attributes
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) pa-ru-ú-ka ḫanṭūtu Gilg. SB III 96 eBL “your (Šamaš's) swift mules”. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) ina pa-re-e Nisaba duššûti SpTU 4, 141 r. 9 eBL “with the magnificent mules of Nisaba”. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) pa-ru-ka ezzū šamrū BWL, 134: 150 eBL “your mules are furious, impetuous”.
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) ul ʾ-da-ru (‖ lā i-ad-da-ru) pa-r[u]-ka BWL, 128: 41 eBL “your (Šamaš's) mules will not become restless”. new
14. Care, feeding
OBOB: Old Babylonian (ca. 2000–1600 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) ŠE ŠÀ.GAL anšeŠÚ.MUL UmCT 2, 45: 1 ARCHIBAB “barley, fodder for onager-donkey hybrids/mules”. new
15. Military, Booty
NANA: Neo Assyrian (ca. 1000–600 BCE) anšepa-re-e sisê aḫtabat SAA 3, 17 r. 17 SAAo “I took as plunder mules and horses”.
26. In literature
OA-LitOA-Lit: Old Assyrian literary texts — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) pá-ra-am arḫam tanassaḫam zibbassu AML, 162: 11 SEAL “she (Lamaštu) tears off the tail of the quick mule”. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) sisû tēbû ana muḫḫī atāni pa-re-e kī ⸢ēlû⸣ kī ša rakbuma ina uznīša ulaḫḫaš u[mma m]ūru ša ⸢tulli⸣dī kī jâti lū lāsim an[a imēr]u zābil tupšikki lā tumaššalī BWL, 218: 15 eBL “when a lusty horse was climbing a mule mare, when he was mounting, he whispered in her ears: ‘Let the [f]oal which you bear be a runner like me. Do not make it like a [donk]ey who carries a basket”. The joke seems to be that mules are infertile.
Discussion
According to Heimpel 1990, Bab. parû corresponds to Ass. kūdanu. However, the OB refs. under # list parû together with kūdannu which shows that both words refer to different animals. According to van Koppen 2002, 28f., parû is the regular designation for mules in Mari texts whereas kūdannu designates special mules exclusively for royal use. We rather assume that kūdannu means “mule” whereas parû here and probably in the OAkk. refs. still means “onager-donkey hybrid”. This is probably also true for the other OB refs. under # and # but this cannot be proven. We assume further that parû generally acquired the meaning “mule” from MB on.
The refs. in AHw parû(m) I 3 for figurines of mules are interpreted in CAD P 207f. as a separate lemma parû B “a bead or ornament”. EDA 1 does not comment on this. It is unlikely that the refs. sub parû B belong to parû “mule”. If not a separate lemma, they might rather belong to CAD parû D “mng. unkn.”, interpreted in EDA 1, 228 no. 388 as parû “fruit(?)”
For ba-ra-ša “juniper(?)” CUSAS 34, 98 no. 21 in context with a caravan, ARCHIBAB offers pá-ra ša Ištar “mule of Ištar”, which is uncertain (note that the final contracted vowel is not written plene).