Gulšeš

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The Gulšeš are the Hittite goddesses of fate. They can appear as an individual goddess (Gulša) or as a group (Gulšeš). With the Luwians they are called Gulza and in the younger dialect Kwanza and with the Palaars Gulzannikeš, who are named ninth in lists of gods after the court genius Ḫilanzipa and before the vegetation deities Uliliyantikeš .

Surname

The name of the deities of fate can be traced back to Uranatolian * kuels- "draw, write". At the stage of regulation, the Mesopotamian script, known through trade contacts, was regarded as something magical; What was written down was something inevitable. At that time the god name * Kwals- originated from which Hittite Kulš as well as Pala and Luwian Kulz, which were written in the Hittite cuneiform with the sign GUL. Towards the end of the Bronze Age the consonant group / lz / could become / nz / in Luwian, so that * Kwalz- finally became Kwanz-. The connection between writing and fate is also known from other cultures.

In ancient Assyrian documents from Kültepe of the 18th century BC The personal names Kulšawashe and Kulzia are found, which testifies to both the Hittite and the Luwian form of the god's name. In the hieroglyphic Luwian of the Iron Age, among other things, the male name Kwanza-Yarri is found, a combination of the deity of fate and the plague god Iyarri . Such personal names composed of two gods are common in Anatolia. The last evidence comes from classical antiquity from Isauria , such as Kouanzapeas and Konzapeas (Κουανζαπεας, Κονζαπεας: luw. Kwanza-piya- "gift of the Kwanza") and Kozapigramis (Κοζαπhranza "Kouanzapeas" - the luster of Kwanza "habanza" - the Kwanza. .

function

The Gulšeš are responsible for human fate, beginning with birth and ending with death. In the cult of the Ḫuwaššanna they are worshiped together with the deities Ḫarištašši and “ auspicious day ”, the latter being a euphemism for the day of death. Ḫarištašši is a household and family deity who protects the place of birth, mother and newborn. Often the Gulšeš appear together with the mother goddesses or Ḫannaḫanna , who are responsible for the birth, and determine the fate of the newborn. They accompany people through their lives, give strength, long life, success and love from gods and people. But bad fate or early death are also ascribed to the Gulšeš.

Since, according to Anatolian belief, man was made of clay, the river bank plays an important role in birth and cleansing rituals and the "Gulšeš of the river bank" ( Gulšeš wappuwaš ) are invoked to avert a bad fate. Since a bad fate can be brought about by black magic ( alwanzatar ) using clay images of a person, cleansing rituals are performed on the riverbank. The “Gulšeš of the river bank” are offered with the request that they return the bad image to the magician. Or tongues of clay are formed and these are given to the river; the magic of analogy dissolves the evil words of the magic with the clay tongues. In another ritual, a sheep is sacrificed to the Gulšeš with the request that the “evil Gulšaš” ( idaluš Gulšaš ) should leave and the benevolent Gulšaš ( ušantariš Gulšaš ) should turn back.

In addition to the mother goddesses and Ḫannaḫanna, the hattic goddesses of fate Eštuštaya and papaya can also appear together with the gulšeš, who spin the king's thread of life on the shores of the Black Sea, a feature that the Hittite gulšeš lack. The daraweš, sometimes named together with them, are a group of gods different from them and the mother goddesses, with similar functions.

See also

literature

  • Alfonso Archi: The Anatolian Fate-Goddesses and their Different Traditions. In: Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum , Jörg Klinger, Gerfrid GW Müller (Eds.): Diversity and Standardization. Perspectives on Social and Political Norms in the Ancient Near East. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-05-005756-9 , pp. 1–26.
  • Volkert Haas : The Hittite literature. Texts, style, motifs. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2006, ISBN 3-11-018877-5 .
  • Piotr Taracha : Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia (= Dresden contributions to Hethitology. 27). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05885-8 .
  • Ilya Yakubovich: The Luwian deity Kwanza. In: Aramazd. Vol. 8, No. 1/2, 2013/2014, ISSN  1829-1376 , pp. 282-297.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alwin Kloekhorst: Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon (= Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. 5). Brill, Leiden et al. 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16092-7 , p. 569 f.