AGA

Definition

AGA (Sumerian "crown"; Akkadian agû) is the cuneiform term for the luminous halo or "crown" that Venus is repeatedly observed to "wear" (apratu) in the BPO 3 Venus-omen tablets of Enūma Anu Enlil. The crown is qualified by source (the Moon's crown AGA dSin, the Sun's crown AGA dUTU), by color (white, black, red, silver), or by number (one crown, two crowns), with each qualification bound to a distinct omen-apodosis. It is one of the named luminous-phenomenon classes in the Venus-omen repertoire alongside sirhu and sabihu.

In Tradition

Reiner and Pingree treat AGA as a recurring Venus-omen protasis variable that the Babylonian commentary tradition itself interprets in two registers. As a luminous-phenomenon observation, AGA names the halo or crown of light surrounding Venus. As a commentary-mediated planetary-conjunction reading, the K.2907 commentary on Enūma Anu Enlil 59-60 glosses "she wears two crowns" as "two planets stand in front of her" — equating the visual crown with the proximity of another planet in front of Venus.

In Practice

For the student of Babylonian celestial divination, AGA illustrates how Reiner and Pingree, in editing the BPO 3 Venus-omens, reconstruct the operational mechanics of a Venus-omen sub-series. In Groups B, C, and F (K.3601, ND 4362, K.2346, K.2907+12248), the crown-protases are paired with fixed apodoses. Wearing the Sun's crown portends a year of remission of debts; two crowns portend a king exercising world dominion; the Moon's crown portends lamentation or remission of debts; white and red crowns yield remission of debts; the black crown and the two-crowns reading yield women dying in childbirth. The K.2907 commentary further records that the Moon's crown signals Venus appears small while the Sun's crown signals she appears large — folding apparent-magnitude observation into the omen-class. The commentary's gloss "two crowns = two planets in front" supplies the bridge between optical-halo observation and the planetary-conjunction reading.

Historical Origin

AGA is attested across the BPO 3 Venus-omen corpus (Reiner & Pingree edition of Enūma Anu Enlil Venus-tablets) — in Groups B and C (K.2907+12248 commentary edition, pp. 101-141) and in the Group F manuscripts K.3601, ND 4362, and K.2346 (pp. 222-223). Modern critical treatment: Reiner & Pingree, *Babylonian Planetary Omens Part Three* (1998).

Further Reading

• Erica Reiner & David Pingree, Babylonian Planetary Omens Part Three