Kiaše | |
---|---|
Hurrian god of the sea | |
Affiliation | Kumarbi |
Abode | The sea |
Personal information | |
Children | Šertapšuruḫi |
Equivalents | |
Ugaritic equivalent | Yam |
Hittite equivalent | Aruna |
Kiaše, [1] also spelled Kiaže [2] or Kiyaši [3] was a Hurrian deity representing the sea. Sometimes in modern scholarship, he is simply referred to as "the Sea" [3] or "the Sea God." [4]
Based on evidence from Ugarit, Alalakh and Hattusa, it is assumed that he was an actively worshiped deity, similar to his Ugaritic equivalent, Yam. In myths he typically appears as an ally of Kumarbi and thus opponent of Teshub and Shaushka.
The name Kiaše is an ordinary Hurrian noun meaning "sea." [2] It was written as ki-a-še, sometimes with the divine determinative preceding it, or as kyḏ in the alphabetic Ugaritic script. [1] As attested by the existence of two separate writings of the theophoric name of a Hurrian woman from Alalakh, Agap-kiaše, it could be represented not only syllabically, but also logographically (A.BA.BA.). [5] The same logogram was sometimes used to represent the Ugaritic word ym, which likewise corresponds to the name of a sea deity, Yam. [6]
The worship of the sea is attested in Hurrian texts from Hattusa and from Ugarit. [1] A hymn to Teshub from Halab (modern Aleppo) also mentions Kiaše among the invoked deities. [7] Yet another ritual text (KUB 27.38) mentions him alongside deified kings and the mountain gods Ḫazzi and Namni. [8]
Song of the Sea, a text dealing with the eponymous god, was performed during a celebration connected to Mount Hazzi according to a ritual text (KUB 44.7). [9]
Both feminine and masculine Hurrian personal names containing the word kiaše are known, with some examples from Alalakh being Agap-kiaše (f), Ewri-kiaše (m) and Wandi-kiaše (m). [10] Similar names are also known from Ugarit and from other areas which were inhabited by Hurrian communities. [5]
As noted by Aaron Tugendhaft, the position of the deified sea was similar in the pantheons of the Hurrians and in Ugarit, but not in Mesopotamia. [5] Daniel Schwemer considers the Hurrian sea god and the Ugaritic Yam to be equivalents. [11] Both Kiaše [1] and Yam appear in god lists and as actively worshiped deities in ritual texts. [12] In contrast, in Mesopotamia the evidence for worship of the sea and for personification of this part of nature is relatively scarce. In Enuma Elish , the name of the monstrous sea personification Tiamat is written without the divine determinative, [13] and she is otherwise mostly attested in explanatory texts depending on this myth. [14] Deified sea, dA.BA.BA, also occurs in the Theogony of Dunnu , and is identified as a female figure. [13] According to Wilfred G. Lambert, this text is likely late, with the only known copy written in the neo-Babylonian or Persian period, [15] and at least one of the figures appearing in it, Ḫamurnu ("Heaven") has Hurrian origin. [16] dA.BA.BA is not present in any Mesopotamian god lists. [12] However, a god named Lugala'abba (Sumerian: "lord of the sea") does appear in the god list An = Anum , and it is assumed that he was an underworld deity. [17] He was worshiped in Nippur during the reign of Samsu-iluna. [18] Further Mesopotamian deities associated with the sea were Laguda, a god associated with the Persian Gulf, and Sirsir, associated with sailors. [19]
The sea was also worshiped by the Hittites, [20] who likewise represented it as a male deity, Aruna, in myths. [21] As this word has no plausible Indo-European etymology, Gernot Wilhelm proposes that it was borrowed from Hattic. [20] Aruna is also the name applied to the sea in the Hittite translation of the Kumarbi cycle. [22] It seems more than one sea was venerated in Hittite religion - the "Great Sea" can be identified with the Mediterranean Sea, but the "tarmana sea" remains unidentified. [23]
According to the myth Song of Hedammu, Kiaše's daughter was Šertapšuruḫi. [4] Gernot Wilhelm proposes that her names should be interpreted as "belonging to Šertapšuri," Šertapšuri being an otherwise unknown term or divine name. [24] In an early scholarly article, Michael C. Astour characterized her as "a young person of impressive dimensions." [25] In addition to highlight the size, the myth also compares her to sweet cream. [4]
Kiaše's sukkal (attendant deity) was Impaluri. [22] Volkert Haas notes that the suffix -luri appears in the names of the mountain goddess Lelluri, the primordial giant Upelluri, and also in some Hurrian mountain and stone names. [26]
According to Gernot Wilhelm, many myths about the personified sea known from Hittite translations have Hurrian or Syrian origin. [21] One example of Hurrian texts known largely from their Hittite translations is the Kumarbi cycle, consisting out of Song of Kumarbi, Song of LAMMA, Song of Silver, Song of Hedammu and Song of Ullikummi. [27]
In the Song of Hedammu, Kiaše makes an appearance as an ally of Kumarbi and meets with him in his dwelling to propose the marriage with his daughter to him. [4] This alliance is part of a pattern present in all parts of the cycle - the allies of Teshub are gods associated chiefly in the sky, like Shaushka or Shimige, while Kumarbi cooperates with gods of the underworld and the sea. [28] The eponymous Hedammu is a monster born from her union of Kiaše's daughter with Kumarbi. [4] The sea god makes another appearance after Teshub's sister Shaushka discovers the monster - Kumarbi's sukkal Mukišanu summons him for another meeting with his master, and warns him to travel underground to avoid being spotted by Teshub and his allies. After the sea's arrival two of them participate in a feast together, but the rest of the scene is not preserved, and the next fragment describes a meeting between Teshub and Shaushka instead. [29]
The sea god also appears in the Song of Ullikummi, in which he advises Kumarbi, much like in the Song of Hedammu. [30] In this myth, however, it is his sukkal Impaluri who asks Kumarbi to meet with his master, who seemingly does not understand why the latter is angry. [31] Meindert Dijkstra proposes that Šertapšuruḫi also reappears, possibly as one of the midwives mentioned during the birth of Ullikummi, the eponymous antagonist, presumably acting alongside Hutena and Hutellura. [32] The role Kiaše plays in Song of Ullikummi is one of its features used to argue that the connection between it and the Song of Hedammu was particularly close. [33] Noga Ayali-Darshan notes that despite Kiaše's alliance with Kumarbi, a sea wave delivers information about Ullikummi to Shaushka, which might indicate that more than one tradition regarding the sea was combined by the compiler of this text. [34]
Another Hurrian myth involving the sea was the Song of the Sea. [9] Two texts, a ritual instruction prescribing the singing of Song of the Sea and an ancient literary catalog, attest its existence. [35] A number of fragments of Hurrian texts are assumed to belong to it, but nothing can be said about the plot with certainty, other than that the sea, Kumarbi and the so-called "primordial deities" played some role in it. [36] According to Ian Rutherford, this myth was either a description of the origin of the eponymous god, an account of a primordial flood, or perhaps of a conflict between the weather god Teshub and the sea god. [37] He considers the third option to be the most likely, due to the location connected to the myth, the presence of vocabulary associated with the act of vanquishing enemies of the gods, and the presence of Kumarbi and his allies, the "primordial deities." [37] Mount Hazzi, in connection with which the Song of the Sea was ritually performed, was another name for mount Saphon known from Ugaritic texts, where the conflict between the weather god Baal and the sea god Yam took place in the Baal Cycle. [38]
It has been proposed that Song of the Sea was a part of the Kumarbi cycle, but this remains uncertain. [37] It is possible that it can be placed either right before Song of Hedammu, with defeat at the hands of Teshub motivating Kiaše to offer Kumarbi his daughter in marriage, or between the Song of Kumarbi and Song of LAMMA, in which case it would document Teshub's gradual rise to power. [39]
Further allusions to conflict between Teshub and the sea are present elsewhere in Hurro-Hittite literature: in the myth of Shaushka and Pišaišapḫi, the latter god in return for sparing him in spite of his misdeeds promises to tell her the story of Teshub's victory over the sea and the subsequent rebellion of the mountain gods against him. [40] Ian Rutherford notes that the myth seemingly alludes to the mountain gods using the same weapon which Teshub used to defeat the sea god with to fight him, possibly indicating they stole it. [40] These motifs have no parallel in the myths about Baal's combat with Yam. [41]
Another fragmentary text of Hurrian origin [42] relays that at one point the sea caused a flood which reached the heavens, and demanded tribute of gold, silver and lapis lazuli from the gods, with Kumarbi possibly urging the other deities to pay. [43] The deity who brings the tribute to the sea is the "Queen of Nineveh," Shaushka (d IŠTAR). [3] [44] It is possible that this is simply a fragment of the Song of the Sea, rather than an independent composition. [45] It has been pointed out that it resembles an Egyptian composition about the goddess Astarte and the sea, known from the so-called "Astarte papyrus," though the latter bears similarities to the Baal Cycle as well. [46] Noga Ayali-Darshan notes that it is likely based on a composition originally transmitted in a Western Semitic language (though it is not necessarily the Ugaritic Baal Cycle), rather than in Hurrian, as the personified sea is referred to as Ym rather than Kiaše. [47]
Fragmentary Hittite version of the Epic of Gilgamesh mentions the personified sea, seemingly accompanied by his Hurrian sukkal Impaluri. [48] While Gilgamesh bows down to the god and blesses him and his minions, he is cursed in response. [48] Gary Beckman assumes that this episode reflected the sea's more pronounced role in the mythology of inhabitants of ancient Anatolia. [48] He notes that multiple Hurrian and Hittite additions differentiating from the standard Babylonian version are known, indicating that the epic was sometimes adapted to suit sensibilities of non-Mesopotamian audiences. [49]
Dagon or Dagan was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attestations of his cult come from cities such as Mari and Emar as well. In settlements situated in the upper Euphrates area he was regarded as the "father of gods" similar to Mesopotamian Enlil or Hurrian Kumarbi, as well as a lord of the land, a god of prosperity, and a source of royal legitimacy. A large number of theophoric names, both masculine and feminine, attests that he was a popular deity. He was also worshiped further east, in Mesopotamia, where many rulers regarded him as the god capable of granting them kingship over the western areas.
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Ḫebat or Hepat was a Hurrian goddess. She was the tutelary deity of Halab in origin, and in that role appears already in pre-Hurrian texts from Ebla. Her status was not identical in all Hurrian centers: while she was the main goddess in the pantheons of Halab and various cities of Kizzuwatna, her role in Ugarit and in eastern cities like Nuzi was smaller.
Kumarbi was an important god of the Hurrians, regarded as "the father of gods." He was also a member of the Hittite pantheon. According to Hurrian myths, he was a son of Alalu, and one of the parents of the storm-god Teshub, the other being Anu. His cult city was Urkesh.
Upelluri or Ubelluri was a primordial giant in Hurrian mythology.
Kušuḫ, also known under the name Umbu, was the Hurrian god of the moon. He is attested in cuneiform texts from many sites, from Hattusa in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh, Mari and other locations in Syria, to Nuzi, located near modern Kirkuk in Iraq, but known sources do not indicate that he was associated with a single city. His name might be derived from the toponym Kuzina, possibly the Hurrian name of Harran, a city in Upper Mesopotamia, but both this etymology and identification of this sparsely attested place name remain uncertain. He was a popular, commonly worshiped god, and many theophoric names invoking him are known. In addition to serving as a divine representation of the moon, he was also associated with oaths, oracles and pregnancy. Some aspects of his character were likely influenced by his Mesopotamian counterpart Sin, while he in turn was an influence on the Ugaritic god Yarikh and Luwian Arma.
Yam was a god representing the sea and other sources of water worshiped in various locations on the eastern Mediterranean coast, as well as further inland in modern Syria. He is best known from the Ugaritic texts. While he was a minor deity in Ugaritic religion, he is nonetheless attested as a recipient of offerings, and a number of theophoric names invoking him have been identified. He also played a role in Ugaritic mythology. In the Baal Cycle he is portrayed as an enemy of the weather god, Baal. Their struggle revolves around attaining the rank of the king of the gods. The narrative portrays Yam as the candidate favored by the senior god El, though ultimately it is Baal who emerges victorious. Yam nonetheless continues to be referenced through the story after his defeat. In texts from other archaeological sites in Syria, attestations of Yam are largely limited to theophoric names. In Emar he was among the many deities venerated during a local festival, zukru, which took place once every seven years.
In Hurrian mythology, Ullikummi is a giant stone monster, son of Kumarbi and the sea god's daughter, Sertapsuruhi, or a female cliff. The language of the literary myth in its existing redaction is Hittite, in cuneiform texts recovered at Bogaskoy, where some Hurrian fragments of the "Song of Ullikummi" have been found. See Guterbock (1951).
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Šauška (Shaushka), also called Šauša or Šawuška, was the highest ranked goddess in the Hurrian pantheon. She was associated with love and war, as well as with incantations and by extension with healing. While she was usually referred to as a goddess and with feminine titles, such as allai, references to masculine Šauška are also known. The Hurrians associated her with Nineveh, but she was also worshiped in many other centers associated with this culture, from Anatolian cities in Kizzuwatna, through Alalakh and Ugarit in Syria, to Nuzi and Ulamme in northeastern Mesopotamia. She was also worshiped in southern Mesopotamia, where she was introduced alongside a number of other foreign deities in the Ur III period. In this area, she came to be associated with Ishtar. At a later point in time, growing Hurrian influence on Hittite culture resulted in the adoption of Šauška into the Hittite state pantheon.
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Aruna was the god of the sea in Hittite religion. His name is identical with the Hittite word for the sea, which could also refer to bodies of water, treated as numina rather than personified deities. His worship was not widespread, and most of the known attestations of it come exclusively from the southeast of Anatolia. He was celebrated in cities such as Ḫubešna and Tuwanuwa.
The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who chiefly inhabited the north of the Fertile Crescent. While the oldest evidence goes back to the third millennium BCE, is best attested in cuneiform sources from the second millennium BCE written not only in the Hurrian language, but also Akkadian, Hittite and Ugaritic. It was shaped by the contacts between Hurrians and various cultures they coexisted with. As a result, the Hurrian pantheon included both natively Hurrian deities and those of foreign origin, adopted from Mesopotamian, Syrian, Anatolian and Elamite beliefs. The culture of the Hurrians were not entirely homogeneous, and different local religious traditions are documented in sources from Hurrian kingdoms such as Arrapha, Kizzuwatna and Mitanni, as well as from cities with sizeable Hurrian populations, such as Ugarit and Alalakh.
Aštabi, also known as Aštabil, was a god worshiped in the third millennium BCE in Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian beliefs in locations such as Alalakh and Ugarit and as a result also into the religion of the Hittite Empire.
Šimige was the Hurrian sun god. Known sources do not associate him with any specific location, but he is attested in documents from various settlements inhabited by the Hurrians, from Kizzuwatnean cities in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh and Mari in Syria, to Nuzi, in antiquity a part of the kingdom of Arrapha in northeastern Iraq. His character was to a large degree based on his Mesopotamian counterpart Shamash, though they were not identical. Šimige was in turn an influence on the Hittite Sun god of Heaven and Luwian Tiwaz.
Nupatik, also known as Lubadag, was a Hurrian god of uncertain character. He is attested in the earliest inscriptions from Urkesh, as well as in texts from many other Hurrian settlements, and possibly continued to be worshiped as late as in the neo-Assyrian period. However, his functions remain uncertain.
Nabarbi was a Hurrian goddess worshiped in the proximity of the river Khabur, especially in the city Taite. It has been proposed that she was associated with the Syrian goddess Belet Nagar.
Namni and Ḫazzi were two mountain gods who belonged to the Hurrian pantheon. They are usually mentioned together in known texts. Ḫazzi corresponds to Jebel al-Aqra, while the identification of the mountain Namni represented is disputed. Both of them belonged to the court of the Hurrian weather god, Teššub, and it is possible they were worshiped alongside him in Aleppo. They are also attested in a variety of Hurrian and Hittite religious texts. They do not play an active role in known myths of Hurrian origin, though allusions to a conflict involving them have been identified in texts dealing with other deities.
Pišaišapḫi was a Hurrian mountain god. His name was derived from that of the associated mountain, Pišaiša, which was most likely located next the Mediterranean coast. He is attested in Hurrian and Hittite ritual texts from cities such as Hattusa, Šapinuwa and Ugarit. A Hittite literary text known as Myth of Pišaiša is focused on him, though its origin and the reading of the names of other deities who play roles in it remains a matter of debate among researchers.