Müüt „Illujanka ja Tešub“ ja EZENpurulliyaš pidustused hetiidi religioosse ideoloogia ja kuningavõimu kontekstis. Mesopotaamia ja hatti mõjutused

Abstract

The Myth “Illujanka and Tešub” and ezenpurulliyaš Festivities in the Context of Hittite Religious Ideology and Kingship. Mesopotamian and Hatti Influences

The current article is focusing on some questions concerning the famous Hittite myth of Illuyanka. Hence, I will try to give not only a commented translation of this myth (I must remark that here is translated only one of two existant versions), but the main aim of the current paper is to carry out the comparative study of similar myths in Mesopotamia and Greek cultural space and to analyze the origin of this myth. This is a very important myth for the existence of the whole Hittite kingdom. The text was written relatively late – in ca 13th century BCE (we have only cuneiform copies from this time, but the myth itself is much older), being closely related to the Hittite royal power, state ideology and Hittite official cults. Probably the myth is older than the Hittite kingdom and both the story and the ritual originate from the old pre-Hittite time from Hattic people. There are some facts to support the theory that originally a large number of phenomena of this myth are not of Hittite but of pure Hattic origin. In this typical Indo-European theme of slaying a serpent or a dragon (Illuyanka) by a godly hero (storm god Tešub) some remarkable parallels occur with other Indo-European serpent-slaying myths – Greek, Indian, etc. However, not only Hattic (non-Indo-European) and Hittite (Indo-European) influences are attested in this case, but also Mesopotamian. The ancient traditions of writing – cuneiform, a large number of religious phenomena, the state administration, the rulership and the development of the royal ideology as well as the structures of the power of Hittites were established under strong Mesopotamian (Hurrian, Assyrian, Babylonian) influence. From Hurrians was borrowed almost the whole Hittite pantheon of deities and an extremely large number of mythological texts.

Not only the Hittite kingship, but also ideology and religion were formed under all these mentioned influences. Hittites’ New Year festival, called purulli-festival, took place in spring, and had similarities with the Babylonian New Year Akitu-festival, which was celebrated in spring as well, being very important not only to the existence of kingship, but also to the whole world order. In the similar way as in Babylonia and in Assyria the monstrous demonlike evil creatures such as Tiamat or Anzu, in Hittite kingdom the serpent Illuyanka was the personification of winter and evil. In Mesopotamia there was a divine hero (god Ninurta or Marduk or Aššur) who was the personification of “fertility” and “spring”, representing the “positive things” and fighting against an evil monstrous demon (Tiamat, Anzu, etc.). The similar positive divine hero existed also in the Hittite kingdom – the storm god Tešub, and he fought against evil serpent Illuyanka.

Thus there can be observed several similar features in the Babylonian creation epic “Enuma Eliš” or “Anzu-Epic”, and the Greek (Zeus and Typhon, etc.) and Ancient Indian myths (e.g. the story about the fight between Indra and Vritra).