Gaššulawiya

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Gaššulawiya was a wife of the Hittite great king Muršili II and probably also great queen.

The names of two wives of Mursilis II, who lived from approx. 1321 to 1295 BC, are from Hittite sources. Ruled, known: Gaššulawiya and Danuḫepa , of whom the latter is secured as the future wife (see below ). It is also known that the first woman died in Muršili's ninth year of reign and that he had at least one son with her. This emerges from two texts in which he accused his stepmother and reigning Great Queen Tawananna, among other things, of cursing the death of his first wife - whose name is not preserved in the texts - and of having cursed his son; which is why he later accused her of witchcraft , initiated a lawsuit, and finally removed her from her position as Great Queen. It would now be plausible to shoot that the wife Gaššulawiya, who died in the ninth year, meant and that Muršili married Danuḫepa after her death. However, a cross seal was discovered on which Mursili and Gaššulawiya appear, the latter referred to as the Great Queen. But since Tawannanna was the rightful queen until she was deposed, which only happened after the death of the first wife, Gaššulawiya had no claim to this title at all. There are two explanations for this contradiction:

  1. Gaššulawiya accepted the title anyway and there were two great queens at the same time. Although this would explain a motive for the anger of the stepmother Muršilis against his wife, no comparable case is known so far with great queens (now with great queen, in which the father usually appointed the son as co-regent). Metin Alpaslan considers this possibility “very doubtful”.
  2. Mursili was married not two times but three times. In that case, Gaššulawiya would be his second wife and the one who died in the 9th year of reign would be a previously unknown wife who is not mentioned in any of the previously known documents.

The second explanation would solve the problem of why Gaššulawiya is dubbed the Great Queen. She would then have become the Great Queen after her predecessor was ousted. She would also be the mother of four other sons of Muršilis II: the two future great kings Muwattalli II and Ḫattušili III. as well as the Ḫalpa-šulupi and the Maššana-uzzi . A received supplication for the recovery of the seriously ill Gaššulawiya ( CTH 380 + KBo 31.80) was probably said by Tawananna, which has long been a source of irritation in research, since the Great Queen is said to have hated Muršili's first wife. Trevor Bryce explains this by saying that Tawananna was obliged to do so, since it was part of her religious duties as the Great Queen to speak at such supplications. If the wife, who died in the 9th year, was not Gaššulawiya at all, this contradiction would be eliminated.

However, this solution also raises problems: Apart from the fact that Muršili would have lost two wives at a very young age, Ḫattušili III protested . , the youngest of five sons of Mursili who have been confirmed, later that he was still a child when the impeachment of the Tawananna took place and that he was therefore not to blame for it. However, this would mean that between the death of Mursili's first wife in the ninth year of reign and her impeachment, at least 5–6 years must have passed, according to which "Tawananna would have performed the office of queen at least until Muršili's 14th or 15th year of reign." But she is certainly only attested as the Great Queen for the 10th year of reign, through a text (CTH 70) in which Muršili accuses his stepmother of various offenses, including the murder of his wife.

In summary, it can be said that it is still not certain whether Gaššulawiya was Muršili's first wife and whether she died in the 9th year, allegedly through complicity of the Tawananna, or whether she succeeded this wife, who was not known by name. In any case, she was named the Great Queen on a seal. It is now certain that Muršili II married Danuḫepa after Gaššulawiya's death, which was sometimes doubted because of the lack of clear evidence, but is now proven by a seal that names Muršili II and Danuhepa.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klinger (2007) p. 101
  2. ^ Metin Alparslan: Die Wattinnen Muršili II. A consideration of the current state of research. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatoloici 69, 2007, p. 33.
  3. ↑ s. Metin Alparslan: The wives of Muršili II. A consideration of the current state of research. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatoloici 69, 2007, p. 34 with further literature.
  4. ^ Trevor R. Bryce: The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford University Press, revised new edition 2005, pp. 208f.
  5. ^ Metin Alparslan: Die Wattinnen Muršili II. A consideration of the current state of research. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatoloici 69, 2007, p. 34.
  6. ↑ Daliah Bawanypeck: The Queens on the Seals. In: Alfonso Archi, Rita Francia (ed.): VI Congresso Internazionale di Ittitologia, Roma 5-9 September 2005. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 49/1, 2007, pp. 49–58, especially p. 50 Fig. 1 ; P. 57f. - online at Academia.edu
personal data
SURNAME Gaššulawiya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the Hittite great king Muršili II and Ethitian great queen
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 14th century BC BC or 13th century BC Chr.