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Post by enkur on Feb 28, 2011 13:46:04 GMT -5
Seems however it wasn't the final battle of Kummarbi against the younger gods - if the myth about Hedamu of the same cycle could be seen as the "Episode III". At least it's next reffered to in "Mythology of Hittite Anatolia" by Maciej Popko where certain fragments of the Hedamu myth's translation are quoted. Unfortunately this time I have no other translation to compare and combine with in my narrative. The beginning of the text is damaged... Now the Father of the Gods gives a banquet to the Great Sea in his home. The Great Sea invites Kumarbi to visit her home after 7 days promising to give him her daughter Sertasuruhi as a wife praising her size and quality. Kumarbi rejoices. Out of this marriage the monster Hedamu is born. Its appetite is devastating - two thousand of oxes, not to speak about the number of goats and sheeps, horses he devoures with thousands too... even salamanders and toads and so on, and so on. Another fragment mentions that like a millstone Hedamu destroys the lands... First Ishtar notices something is going wrong, by seeing the devastated cities of the lands and wonders who of the gods could have done it until she catches the awesome sight of Hedamu amongst tempestuous sea waves. Scared of the monster, Ishtar goes back to the heaven saying: "I fear of serpents." She goes to the gods who pay honours to the Queen of Nineveh, but she accepts neither food, nor drink until she informs them about the situation - about Kumarbi's marriage with the Great Sea's daughter and their monstrous child Hedamu. The gods are upset by her news, the Storm-god sheds streams of tears again... In the next fragment a great assembly of the gods takes place wherein Ea as an arbiter addresses the both sides of the conflict: "Why do you destroy the people? Aren't they those who make sacrifices for the gods? Aren't they those who burn cedar tree for the gods? If you destroy humanity, who will worship the gods? Who will then bring bread and drink to them? It may come out so that the Storm-god, the mighty king of the city of Kummiya, should take the plough himself! It may come out so that Ishtar and Hebat should mill the grain themselves! Ea, the King of Wisdom, addressed Kumarbi: Why then, Kumarbi, why do you wish misfortune to humanity? Don't they leave sheaves of wheat for you? Don't they readily arrange libations for you? Don't they readily enough make sacrifices to you, the Father of the Gods, to please you? Don't they make sacrifices to the Storm-god... humanity? Is not my own name pronounced, of Ea the King? ... human tears and blood... O Kumarbi!" Seems that the Father of the Gods is little moved by these words - now he plots more secretly than ever by sending his vizier to the Sea to call her come to Kumarbi's home via the underground river lest the Moon, the Sun and the gods see her. Their meeting takes place in full secrecy... And the text is also damaged. Ishtar decides to risk. Again in her full erotic brilliance, singing, and playing on her instruments, accompanied by her two attendants, she tries to seduce Hedamu at the seaside. Their dialogue is partly survived. She stands naked by the water and the monster first want to devour her, but she makes libations of fragrant oils and brew on the sea, so Hedamu gets drunken - now he wishes to possess her. However, leaving his throne and coming out of the sea he probably loses his magical power... The rest is to be guessed only. On the image below is the Hittite Ishtar with her two attendants Ninata and Kulita - a drawing-restoration of the bas-relief in Yazilikaya. Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Feb 28, 2011 14:09:23 GMT -5
There is another Hittite text quoted in this book, which tells a myth wherein Mesopotamian deities are involved again. This text, however is very damaged. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by some usurper marked with the Sumerian sign KAL who has deprived the gods of their food and drink. This time the wise Ea makes an ally of Kumarbi and sends a messenger to KAL to reproach him... Then Ea sends his vizier Izumi under the dark earth to arrange with the dark gods so that all the animals of the earth to be gathered... The denouement is unclear but at last KAL is at the mercy of the Storm-god and gets executed. There is a myth about Ishtar and the mountain Pisaisa near Lebanon wherein a mountain god tries to possess the goddess while sleeping. The offended Ishtar is furious and the mountain god asks her forgiveness fearing of the Storm-god's anger. He promises to sing the praise for the Storm-god victory over the Sea, and for the Storm-god's battle with the mountains Nani and Hazi... The end of the story is lost. The myth about the god Elkunirsa tells about Ishtar who turned into an owl and alighted on the shoulder of Elkunirsa to spy for the Storm-god on the dialogue between Elkunirsa and his wife Ashertu who intrigued against the Storm-god... The long story of Apu and his sons tells about the Bad brother and the Just brother who quarrelled with each other for Apu's inheritance and at last asked for the judgement of the Sun-god. The Sun-god judged first for the Just but the Bad started to curse the Sun-god, so the offended Sun-god refused to solve their argument and told them to address Ishtar, the Queen of Nineveh... A Hurro-Hittite ritual text tells about Ishtar who asks a sacred Source for its water to do a purifying ritual thereby... In his book "The Birth of the Gods" Ivan Venedikov, who investigates the Thracian myth on the basis of the comparative mythology, quotes a Hittite ritual text attributed to the queen Puduhepa, the Hurrian princess (wrongly described by the author as "Egyptian") who married Hatussili III (1275 -1250 BCE), where the Storm-god of Nerik is summoned: "Come Storm-god from the city of Nerik - come from heaven, if you are with your father, or, come from the dark earth, if you are with your mother Ereshkigal!" ( My further research shows that the queen Puduhepa wasn't an Egyptian princess but a priestess of Ishtar from Kizzuwattna!)Some texts of the Epos of Gilgamesh are found in Hattusa still in 1921 by Bedrich Hrozni and the archaeological excavations provide more and more fragments. Some of them are written in Akkadian, some in Hurrian, and many in the Hittite language. It was the Akkadian fragment of the epos found in Hattusa, which completed the missing first part in the 5th Tablet of the version from Nineveh. Some of the Hittite texts use Babylonian versions of certain names, while other - Assyrian, and some Canaanian. Maciej Popko mentions also about a fragmented Hittite version of the Atrahasis myth. These are all examples of my own study but the Hittitology could probably bring far more examples of the role played by the Mesopotamian deities in the Hittite mythology. Yet Maciej Popko supposes that most of the the texts being found in the capital city of Hattusa, the case could be different in the rest of Hatti where the local deities were probably still worshipped in their more original forms. Not by accident the Kingdom of Hatti was known as the land of 1000 deities - the Hittite own ones, those of the conquered cultures, and those imported from abroad. This tradition in the religious syncretism will be continued by the Phrygians, the Greeks, and the Romans. It was during the imperial phase of the Hittite kingdom - XIV - XII century BCE, when the presence of the Mesopotamian deities in the Hittite Mythos became most tangible. While deities like Anu, Ellil and Ea may have no direct analogues in the original Hittite pantheon, Ishtar corresponds to the Hurrian deity Shaushka adopted by the Hittites as well. Ellil was also sometimes identified with Kumarbi in the Hurrian myths. On the other hand, if the collective soul (or the collective unconscious) of a people is not preconditioned to adopt certain archetypes from another collective soul, it would never adopt them voluntary as was the case with the Hittites. So maybe certain Mesopotamian deities had some premises in the Hittite collective soul, some appropriate archetypes to be syncretized with. Ereshkigal is mentioned as the Storm-god's mother, and, as far as I know, some exact Indo-European analogues of the Sumerian Ereshkigal are the Thracian Zerintia and the Germanic Hel, so maybe there should have been some unknown Anatolian analogue - in any case the Hittite sorceress goddess Kamrusepa seems to be a prototype of the Greek Hekate. The Hittite Storm-god is a syncretic deity combining the natures of the Hattian Taru, the Hittite Tarhunt (the Indo-European deities of the same root being the Germanic Thor, and the Celtic Taranis), the Hurrian Teshub, the Akkadian Adad, and the Sumerian Ishkur. His wife, the mother-goddess is also a syncretic deity combining the natures of the original Hittite sun-goddess Arinna, or Vurunzimu, and the Hurrian Hebat, or Kheba, associated also with the deified Sumerian queen Kugbau, the Syrian Kubaba, and later identified as the Phrygian Kybebe, or Kybele. The Sun-god combines the natures of the Anatolian Istanu, the Hittite-Palayan sun-god Tiyaz, and the Mesopotamian Utu/Shamash. The War-god who led the attack of the 70 gods against Ullikummi combines the natures of the Hittite Zamama, the Hurrian Astabi, and the Mesopotamian Ninurta. Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Feb 28, 2011 14:26:44 GMT -5
This Yazilikaya bas-relief depicts the Storm-god's son Sharruma as embracing the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV (1237 - 1209 BCE). The Yazilikaya sanctuary was an ancient sacred site used by the Hittites still from the very beginning of their kingdom, but most of the bas-reliefs were carved during the reign of Tudhaliya IV and Suppiluliuma II in the late XIII-th century BCE. The figure before Sharruma is the so called Sword-god who is identified with Nergal by some people. Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Feb 28, 2011 14:35:33 GMT -5
Bibliography (with my impudent comments): "Hittite Myths, Epics, and Legends" - translator: Albrecht Goetze A PDF file in English downloaded from internet: www.kingmixers.com/CLA196/Hurro-Hittite.pdf"Mythology of the Hittite Anatolia" by Maciej Popko - a Bulgarian translation (1983) from the Polish "Mitologia hetyckiej Anatolii" (Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe, Warszawa 1976, 1980, 1987). Despite of its Marxist cliches and other prejudices due to the historic times it was written, this book is a valuable Hittitologist work written in a popular science form. There are no more such popular books in the post-communist times when the common culture is much under its previous level. "The Birth of the Gods" by Ivan Venedikov: A Bulgarian edition in Bulgarian - a serious study of the comparative mythology concerning the origin of the Thracian mythos with many references to the Ancient Orient. "The Ancient Oriental Civilization" by Nedeltcho Nedeltchev: A Bulgarian edition in Bulgarian - a historic resume treating separately each one of the ancient civilizations written in a concise and clear style. Though free from Marxist prejudices it tends to explain everything by economics. Offers also an interesting view of the interaction between the centre and the periphery in the ancient civilizations - in brief, during the imperial phase of each civilization there is a tendency of technocratism and political stagnation in its centre, while its periphery is under the sress of more primitive military democracies, which eventually leads to its collapse. "The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies, & Magic" by Migene Gonzales-Wippler (0-87542-286-1, 400 pgs., 6 x 9, illus., softcover) - mentions about certain interesting ancient traditions and practices, which are to be further investigated since the book is written in a too popular style and full of moralizing precepts concerning white vs black magic. I refered to it only in the context of the ancient approach of paying homage to the foreign deities whose lands are to be conquered, practised by the Roman priesthood during the early Roman military expansion.
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Post by sheshki on Feb 28, 2011 18:33:02 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on Mar 2, 2011 11:18:26 GMT -5
Yes, Sheshki - the Hittites are very interesting matter indeed - not only as a cultural bridge between Mesopotamia and the Graeko-Roman antiquity, but in themselves as well. I just tried to express here my fascination on the base of a few sources available to me, so any further contribution on this thread will be of interest - I hope not only to me and you
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Post by enkur on Mar 2, 2011 11:23:32 GMT -5
By the way, a technical question: how can I post images like yours - I mean without attaching each of them separately?
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Post by sheshki on Mar 4, 2011 7:53:17 GMT -5
First you need the picture to be online somewhere. Then you can use this this phrase: [/img] and place the link to the picture between "img and /img"
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Post by enkur on Mar 4, 2011 10:55:23 GMT -5
Ah yes, thank you.
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Post by muska on Mar 12, 2011 10:56:55 GMT -5
In his book "The Birth of the Gods" Ivan Venedikov, who investigates the Thracian myth on the basis of the comparative mythology, quotes a Hittite ritual text attributed to the queen Puduhepa, the Egyptian princess, who married Hatussili III (1275 -1250 BCE), where the Storm-god of Nerik is summoned: "Come Storm-god from the city of Nerik - come from heaven, if you are with your father, or, come from the dark earth, if you are with your mother Ereshkigal!" This is very interesting moment. I ll try to remember in which scholarly work I have seen a mention about sexual (or even marital) relations between Anu and Ereshkigal. This Hittite text may reflect similar myth.
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Post by enkur on Mar 12, 2011 14:01:48 GMT -5
As I wrote in the thread about Ereshkigal - for me she is the most ancient Ki, the lawful consort of the most ancient Great Bull of Heaven - An in his pre-anthropomorphic image. Later, during the third millennium anthropomorphic development of the deities An became an almost silent and sterile supreme male authority, while the widowed earth goddess turned into an underworld goddess of death. The original images became secondary emblems as was the case with An's Bull of Heaven. Yet the myths about Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven and Inanna's Descend reflect in an indirect way the separation of the primordial couple. In some later peripheral cultures like the Hurrian and the Hittite ones some original elements of the Sumerian mythos may have been preserved.
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alvean
dubsartur (junior scribe)
Posts: 19
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Post by alvean on Mar 13, 2011 5:15:42 GMT -5
Really nice post! I was part of an Archaeological Mission in Yozgat province, just 50km away from Hattusa. I have been there twice and visited the excavation with A. Schachner as a guide. The second time I was there with S. De Martino and A. M. Polvani, two eminent Italian Hittitologists. In May 2011 in my ex-University (Verona) there will be some lessons held by U. D. Schoop (University of Edinburgh) and I hope to be able to follow them and to give notes or recordings to anyone who wants them
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Post by enkur on Mar 14, 2011 9:38:36 GMT -5
Alvean, I could only envy you - in the noble sense, of course
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alvean
dubsartur (junior scribe)
Posts: 19
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Post by alvean on Mar 15, 2011 5:03:04 GMT -5
Tragic is that I have a lot of picture of the city and of Yazilikaya, but not of the new excavation, because it was forbidden. =( Turkey keeps coming back in my life I was there three times for chance: the first time, I simply said to my Assyriology professor "Oh, I have a passport, if you need someone" and I went there just beacuse of a great confusion in documents made by T.Embassy My next degree thesys will be on women in Kanesh (Turkey, again!) in Old Assyrian period, I cannot say I could really decide any other topic, since the alternative was nomadism in Neo Assyrian time... Me in Yerkapi (Sphinx Gate tunnel)
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Post by enkur on Mar 15, 2011 10:29:17 GMT -5
Alvean, Your photo is amazing Due to my choice at the time to study theatrical arts instead of archeology (where I was welcome), now I can visit these places as a mere tourist only It's difficult to combine the allegedly incompatible tendencies in oneself in a society where the interdisciplinary approach is little known.
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Post by sheshki on Apr 30, 2011 13:28:00 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on May 9, 2011 9:15:55 GMT -5
Thanks, Sheshki, very interesting links indeed.
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Post by ninurta2008 on May 10, 2011 7:10:40 GMT -5
Any info on the origins of their hieroglyphic script? Is it from Egyptian hieroglyphs?
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Post by enkur on May 10, 2011 16:39:20 GMT -5
I don't think so despite of their typological resemblance with the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Your question, however, is in time because these hieroglyphic inscriptions come out to be not in Hittite language as was believed before but in Luwian - the Luwian language was an Indo-European languqge of the Anatolian group very close to Hittite language which, however, was written by cuneiform signs only, while there were Luwian texts written in cuneiform signs as well. In fact the Luwian people constituted a significant part of the Hittite kingdom's population and even of the citizens of the capital Hattusa.
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Post by ninurta2008 on May 14, 2011 19:00:36 GMT -5
But did the luwians script evolve from another script? Did they develope it themselves? Or do we know that much yet?
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Post by enkur on May 15, 2011 10:37:59 GMT -5
One should be a Hittitologist to answer, but I'm not...
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Post by enkur on Aug 22, 2011 3:39:57 GMT -5
An interesting document witnessing the cult of Ishtar in the Hittite empire is the Apology of Hattusili III.A historic summary: Hattusili III reigned from 1267 to 1237 BCE. He was the youngest son of Mursili II who appointed him as a priest of Shaushka-Ishtar in the city of Samuha. He was one of the Hittite generals who fought against the Egyptians under the commandment of his brother Muvatali II in the battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE (or in 1296 BCE according to another chronology). However, when Muvatali II's son Mursili III inherited his father, prince Hattusili was deposed as a governor of Hattusa, then from Nerik, so at last he opened a civil war against his nephew, defeated him, dethroned him, exiled him, and sat on the throne of Hattusa as Hattusili III. Here is what he wrote about himself: The Apology of Hattusilis III (Classical Neo-Hittite) 2 SA d IŠTAR par-ra-a ha-an-da-an-da-tar me-ma-ah-hi na-at DUMU.NAM.LU.U₁₉.LU-as is-ta-ma-as-du nu `zi-la-du-wa SA DUTUŠI DUMU-ŠU DUMU.DUMU-ŠU NUMUN DUTUŠI DINGIRMEŠ-as-kan is-tar-na A-NA d IŠTAR na-ah-ha-a-an e-es-du 3 A.BU-YA-an-na-as-za MMur-si-li-is 4 DUMUMEŠ MHal-pa-su-lu-pi-in MNIR.GÁL-in MHa-at-tu-si-li-in FDINGIRMEŠ.ARAD-in-na DUMU.MUNUS-an ha-as-ta nu-za hu-u-ma-an-da-as-pat EGIR-ez-zi-is DUMU-as e-su-un nu-za ku-it-ma-an nu-u-wa DUMU-as e-su-un ŠA KUŠKA.TAB.ANŠE-za e-su-un nu d IŠTAR GAŠAN-YA A-NA MMur-si-li A.BI-YA Ù-et MNIR.GÁL-in ŠEŠ-YA u-i-ya-at A-NA MHa-at-tu-si-li-wa MU.KAMHI.A ma-ni-in-ku-wa-an-te-es Ú-UL-wa-ra-as TI-an-na-as nu-wa-ra-an-mu am-mu-uk pa-ra-a pa-a-i nu-wa-ra-as-mu LÙsa-an-ku-un-ni-is e-es-du nu-wa-ra-as TI-an-za nu-mu A-BU-YA DUMU-an sa-ra-a da-a-as nu-mu A-NA DINGIRLIM ARAD-an-ni pe-es-ta nu-za A-NA DINGIRLIM LÙsa-an-ku-un-ni-ya-an-za BAL-ah-hu-un nu-za-kan A-NA ŠÚ d IŠTAR GAŠAN-YA `lu-ú-lu u-uh-hu-un nu-mu d IŠTAR GAŠAN-YA ŠÚ-za IṢ-BAT na-as-mu-kan pa-ra-a ha-an-da-an-te-es-ta 9 GIM-an-ma IŠ-TU KUR Mi-iz-ri EGIR-pa i-ya-ah-ha-ha-at nu-za I-NA KUR URULa-wa-za-an-ti-ya A-NA DINGIRLUM BAL-u-wa-an-zi i-ya-ah-ha-ha-at nu-za DINGIRLUM i-ya-nu-un nu-za DUMU.MUNUS MPe-en-ti-ip-sa-ri LÙSANGA FPu-du-he-pa-an IŠ-TU INIM DINGIRLIM DAM-an-ni da-ah-hu-un nu ha-an-da-a-u-en nu-un-na-as DINGIRLUM ŠA LÚMU-DI DAM a-as-si-ya-tar pe-es-ta nu-un-na-as DUMU.NITAMEŠ DUMU.MUNUSMEŠ i-ya-u-en nam-ma-mu DINGIRLUM GAŠAN-YA Ù-at QA-DU ÉTI-ma-mu ARAD-ah-ha-hu-ut nu A-NA DINGIRLIM QA-DU ÉTI-YA ARAD-ah-ha-ha-at nu-un-na-as É-er ku-it e-es-su-u-en nu-un-na-as-kan DINGIRLUM an-da ar-ta-at nu-un-na-as É-er pa-ra-a i-ya-an-ni-is ka-ni-is-su-u-wa-ar-ma-at ŠA d IŠTAR GAŠAN-YA e-es-ta Translation "2 I will tell of Ishtar's divine power; let mankind hear it. And, from henceforth, among the gods of my majesty, of his son, of his grandson, of the descendants of my majesty, let there be reverence toward Ishtar.
3 My father, Mursilis, begat us four children, Halpasulupis, Muwattallis, Hattusilis and Massanauzzis, a daughter. And of all of them, I was the last (i.e. the youngest) child. And while I was still a child, I was foolish. Ishtar, My Lady, sent my brother Muwattalis to my father Mursilis in (i.e. by means of) a dream, (saying) "For Hattusilis, the years are short. He will not live long. Give him to me and let him be my priest. Then he will live." And my father offered me, a child, and he gave me to the service of the deity. And serving as a priest to the deity, I made sacrifice. And in the hand of Ishtar, My lady, I saw prosperity(?). And Ishtar, My Lady, took me by the hand, and she showed me divine guidance.
9 When, however, I came back from the land of Egypt, I went to the city of Lawanzantiyas to make libations to the Goddess; and I made sacrifice to the Goddess. And, at the command of the Goddess, I took Puduhepa, the daughter of Pentipsarris, the priest, in marriage; and we married. And the Goddess gave to us the love of husband and wife. And we had (lit. "made") sons and daughters. And the Goddess, my lady, appeared to me in a dream (saying), "Serve me along with your household." And I did service to the Goddess, along with my household. And the Goddess stood among us (in) the household that we established, and our household prospered(?), and it had the favor of My Lady, Ishtar."From www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ietexts/hit/hit-6-X.html
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