Illuyanka

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The weather god kills the dragon Illuyanka. Limestone relief, 1050–850 BC Chr.

Illuyanka is a snake demon from Hittite mythology . The priest Kella describes two different versions of the myth that is closely related to the purulliya New Year festival . Originally it was probably a hattic myth . In the catalog of the Hittite text , the Illujanka myth has the number 321.

The Hittite Myths

In both myths , the weather god, the highest god in the Hittite pantheon , has to fight the serpent Illujanka living in the sea and in the caves of the country.

In the older version, the weather god (Heth. Tarḫunna , hattish Taru) goes to the other gods after his defeat and laments his suffering. His daughter, the country goddess Inara , then gets the help of the human Ḫupašiya and invites Illuyanka and his children to a festival. They get drunk and are captured by Ḫupašiya. They are delivered to the weather god, who then kills them. Inara takes Ḫupašiya to her lover and keeps him in her house on a rock. But when he breaks their ban on looking out of the window, he sees his family and becomes homesick. The goddess then kills him.

In the younger version, Illuyanka takes the eyes and heart of the weather god after his victory. The weather god is long preparing for his vengeance. With the "daughter of a poor man" he fathered a son, who in turn married Illuyanka's daughter. As a wedding gift, he receives the required organs from his father, who thus regains his old strength and shape. The weather god then kills both Illuyanka and - at his request - his son, as he has become part of the Illuyanka family through his marriage.

Both times the weather god is initially defeated by Illuyanka, only to be able to overcome and kill the snake demon in a second battle with the help of others. Many interpret this as a seasonal myth.

etymology

The word is probably composed of two words for "snake": * illu- and * anka- . From the same words in reverse order, the Latin angu-illa and the Greek égch-elys for ' eel ' would be combined. The part * illu- would be originally related to our word “eel”, while * anka- can be found in Sanskrit .

literature

  • Gary Beckman: The Anatolian Myth of Illuyanka. In: Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society , Volume 14, 1982, ISSN  0010-2016 , pp. 11-25 ( PDF; 921 kB ).
  • Volkert Haas : The Hittite religion. In: The Hittites and their empire. The people of 1000 gods. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1676-2 , pp. 102-111 (exhibition catalog).
  • Einar von Schuler : The Mythology of the Hittites and Hurrites. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig (Hrsg.): Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient (= dictionary of mythology . Department 1: The ancient cultures. Volume 1). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 141-216.