Kubaba

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Kubaba with pomegranate and mirror, relief from Karkamiš, 8th century, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations , Ankara

Kubaba (in Ugarit : kbb ) was the city goddess of Karkamiš on the upper Euphrates , where she has been attested since ancient Assyrian times. She was called "Queen of Karkamiš" and the majority of the inscriptions dedicated to her come from the town's territory and surroundings. It is often explicitly called Kubaba by Karkamiš. Her husband was the patron god Karhuha . The goddess was also worshiped by the Hurrites , Hittites and Luwians . Their cult possibly lived on in the ancient Cybelekult .

Presentation and attributes

Kubaba with pomegranate and ears of wheat, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara

The name of the Kubaba is written with the hieroglyph for bird, and doves were sacred to her. Barnett interprets the representation on the hieroglyph as a hawk or hawk. In the Kubaba relief from Karkamiš, her throne stands on a lion, which is the other symbolic animal of the goddess, probably based on Ištar / Šawuška . On the relief from Malatya, on the other hand, her throne stands on a bull, while her husband Karhuhas stands on a lion with a spear and a cylindrical cap with three pairs of horns. On a late Hittite relief from Karkamiš, Kubaba wears a flower-decorated polo shirt with a veil, which is decorated with a pair of horns. She is dressed in a long coat and wears a wide belt, perhaps made of metal. Your braid is curled up at the end. She is holding a pomegranate in one hand and a round mirror in the other. The pomegranate can also be found on the relief from Malatya.

distribution

Kubaba was originally worshiped in Karkamiš, from where the cult spread across Syria and Anatolia. She was venerated as Kubabat in Kültepe as early as the ancient Assyrian period . Their cult is attested for all Bronze Age ethnic groups that ruled Syria, such as the Hurrites and Hittites . It does not occupy a prominent position in Hittite-Hurrittic sacrificial texts and appears together with the binomial Adamma-Kubaba.

During the Iron Age, she was one of the main deities of the hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions. Curse formulas urge Kubaba to emasculate the wicked, according to the Sultanhanı inscription.

The worship of the Kubaba apparently lived on in the Lydian capital Sardis , where it was worshiped as Kybebe. Their temple was burned down by the Persians after Herodotus .

Whether the ancient Cybelekult can be traced back to this goddess is disputed in research. This cult spread from the Phrygian cult city of Pessinus , where the Phrygian goddess Matar Kubileya was worshiped.

Iron Age (late Luwian) cult

A poorly preserved temple excavated in Karkamiš in the northwest of the Acropolis was assigned by Woolley to the Kubaba. However, this assignment is not guaranteed. An altar found there is the TERRA.DEUS.DOMINA , dedicated to the divine mistress of the earth (inscription Karkemiš A5). Processions and parades took place in honor of the goddess. King Katuwa , Kubaba built a temple. Also Kamani , a ward of King Yariri (to 760), you built a temple and consecrated her a statue.

An orthostat relief made of ten stones, alternately made of basalt and limestone, was erected under the ruler Suhi II. According to Ussishkin, it represents a procession in honor of the goddess (the Kubaba procession, reliefs B18b-B24). The first stone on the left (B19a) shows the goddess seated on a throne. The throne stands on the back of a lion. Musicians are depicted in front of the goddess, including drummers and trumpeters. 15 priests follow the goddess, behind them twelve offerers who offer gazelles.

Nine of the stones were found in situ , the remains of another (Karkamiš B45) in the foundation of a Roman wall directly above the temple.

Oxen and sheep were sacrificed to Kubaba.

Inscriptions

Private dedicatory inscriptions are rare, most of them come from the kings of Karkamiš and their immediate surroundings or their vassals.

  • Uratarhunda stele (Karkemiš A4 b),
  • An inscription by the ruler Katuwa (around 880 BC) reports that he "restored" the Kubaba (Karkamiš 2a), on another door stele (B18) he reports of processions and offerings for the goddess.
  • The sons of Sastura , the vizier of King Kamani, boast a good relationship with the goddess and recall that one of their ancestors dedicated a statue to her.
  • On the stele of Körkün , a vassal of King Astiru (around 810) invokes the authority of Kubaba and Tarhunza .
  • two steles from Tell Ahmar (c. 900 BC)
  • The Arpas stele from Aleppo (Aleppo 2) names Kubaba and Ea in a curse formula, the ruler calls himself the servant of the Tarhunza.
  • Two stone blocks from Boybeypınarı , (Adıyaman (Province) | Adıyaman Province) in Kummuh bear an inscription by Panamuwatis, the wife of King Suppiluliuma (805-773), who dedicated a throne base and an offering table to the goddess.
  • a stele from Malatya shows Kubaba and Karhuha
  • The inscriptions Ancoz 5 and Ancoz 7 from Ancoz in Kummuḫ name Ala -Kubaba and Runza .
  • An inscription from Bulgarian armades , donated by Tarhunaza, a vassal of Warpalawas, names Kubaba and Tarhunza, the moon god (DEUS.LUNA) and Nikaruha in the curse formula .
  • The inscription from Çiftlik , from a vassal of Tuwati II of Tabal (around 760) names Kubaba as the wife of Ea
  • The Kululu stele also names Kubaba and Ea in a curse formula
  • The stele of Sultanhanı , donated by a vassal of Wasusarma , son of Tuwati II, is named by Kubaba in the curse formula, together with the moon god of Harran and the gods of Ataha .
  • the Karaburun treaty between King Sipi and Sipi, son of Ni, names Kubaba and the moon god of Harran
  • The curse formula on a stone bowl without a place of discovery is called Kubaba with Karhuha and Santa

Equations

Sayce wants to equate Kubaba with the Mitannic Ḫepat and the goddess of Tyana and Kybistra . FG Gordon reads the kpp of the Keftiu sayings as Kupapa. Both approaches are generally not accepted by research.

See also

literature

  • William Foxwell Albright : The Anatolian Goddess Kubaba. Archive for Orient Research, 1929, pp. 229–231
  • Oliver Robert Gurney : Some aspects of Hittite religion. ( Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archeology 1976) Oxford University Press for the British Academy, Oxford 1977, pp. 17-18
  • John David Hawkins : Kubaba at Karkamiš and elsewhere. Anatolian Studies No. 31, 1981, 31, pp. 147-176.
  • Wolfgang Helck , reflections on the great goddess and the deities associated with her. Religion and culture of the ancient Mediterranean world in parallel research 2. Munich / Vienna: Oldenbourg 1971.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JD Hawkins, Kubaba at Karkamiš and elsewhere. Anatolian Studies 31, 1981, 147
  2. ^ RD Barnett, Early Greek and Oriental Ivories. Journal of Hellenic Studies 68, 1948, fig. 21st
  3. ↑ Archibald H. Sayce, Cybele and Gallos in the Hittite text. The Classical Review 42/5, 1928, 161
  4. ^ RD Barnett, Early Greek and Oriental Ivories. Journal of Hellenic Studies 68, 1948, 22
  5. ↑ JD Hawkins, Kubaba at Karkamiš and elsewhere. Anatolian Studies 31, 1981, fig. 3
  6. ↑ http://www.hittitemonuments.com/arslantepe/arslantepe15.htm
  7. ↑ K. Riemschneider, Die Welt der Hittiter. Stuttgart 1954, plate 44, 1
  8. ↑ JD Hawkins, Kubaba at Karkamiš and elsewhere. Anatolian Studies 31, 1981, 173
  9. ^ RD Barnett, Early Greek and Oriental Ivories. Journal of Hellenic Studies 68, 1948, 22
  10. ↑ Laroche, Koubaba, deesse anatolienne, et le probleme des origines de Cybèle. Elements orientaux in the religion grecque ancienne. Paris, 1960, 113-128
  11. ↑ Lynn E. Roller, The Great Mother at Gordion: The Hellenization of an Anatolian Cult. Journal of Hellenic Studies 111, 1991, 128-143
  12. ^ Leonard Woolley, Carchemish III. London 1952, 210 ff
  13. ^ David Ussishkin, On the dating of some Groups of Reliefs from Carchemish and Til Barsib. Anatolian Studies 17, 1967, 182 f.
  14. ↑ Inscription Karkemiš 2B
  15. ^ JD Hawkins, Kubaba at Karkamiš and Elsewhere. Anatolian Studies 31, 1981, 149
  16. ↑ Irene J. Winter, Carchemish ša kišad puratti. Anatolian Studies 33, Special Number in Honor of the Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Dr. Richard Barnett 1983 Pl.XLIXc
  17. ^ David Ussishkin, On the dating of some Groups of Reliefs from Carchemish and Til Barsib. Anatolian Studies 17, 1967, Pl. XV
  18. ^ Leonard Wooley, Carchemish, Part III, London. Footnote I on D. 165
  19. ↑ Karkamiš A11 b 3-c 4
  20. ↑ JD Hawkins, The “Autobiography of Ariyahinas's Son”: An Edition of the Hieroglyphic Luwian Stelae Tell Ahmar 1 and Aleppo 2. Anatolian Studies 30, Special Number in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor OR Gurney 1980, 139-156
  21. ↑ JD Hawkins, The "Autobiography of Ariyahinas's Son": An Edition of the Hieroglyphic Luwian Stelae Tell Ahmar 1 and Aleppo 2. Anatolian Studies 30, Special Number in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor OR Gurney 1980, 152
  22. ↑ Archibald H. Sayce, Cybele and Gallos in the Hittite text. Classical Review 42/5, 1928, 161
  23. ^ FG Gordon, The Keftiu Spell. The Journal of Egyptian Archeology 18/1/2, 1932, 67