Letter ordering messenger’s death (1)

Text
Sargon Legend 53-56 (Sumerian):
In those days, writing on clay certainly existed, but enveloping tablets did not exist. King Ur-Zababa, for Sargon, creature of the gods, with writing on clay - a thing which would cause his own death - he dispatched it to Lugal-zagesi in Uruk.

Homer, Iliad 6.166-171:
The king was angered, but shrank from killing Bellerophon, so he sent him to Lycia bearing baneful signs (sêmata), written inside a folded tablet and containing much ill against the bearer. He bade Bellerophon show these written signs to his father-in-law, to the end that he might thus perish; Bellerophon therefore went to Lycia, and the gods convoyed him safely.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Homer, Iliad 6.166-171
Sargon Legend 53-56 (Sumerian)

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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