purulliya festival
The purulliya festival was probably the most important festival of the Hittites . As a festival of renewal, it was probably the Hittite New Year . It was celebrated in spring, when it was “green and sprouting”, and lasted about a month; the official celebrations started in the capital Ḫattuša . In the course of the festival, the Hittite king , queen and princes made pilgrimages through various cities, including the holy cities of Arinna and Zippalanda , but above all the weather god city of Neriktook an important position. In the latter city the legitimation of the king by the gods took place, thus the climax of the whole festival; the Illuyanka myth was performed here during the festival .
backgrounds
The purulliya festival was originally a hattic festival. This can be seen in the deities worshiped at the festival and in the places visited, but also in the songs and exclamations sung in Hattisch . The Hittite festival name purulli (ya) - , wurulli (ya) - is probably a derivation from hattisch for- (written pu-ur- , wu u -ur- ) "earth, land". The Hurrian word purulli "house, temple" is to be kept away.
After the Hittites had lost the weather god city of Nerik under Ḫantili II. To the Kaškäer , the festival was held in neighboring places. Some rituals were included in the AN.TAḪ.ŠUM festival . After Ḫattušili III. When the city was retaken, the rituals were renewed. Kella, priest of the weather god of Nerik , wrote 32 tablets describing the festival in Nerik, of which hardly anything has survived.
The course of the festival has only been handed down in fragments, so that the sequence of the individual festive rituals has to be reconstructed. In addition, the affiliation of individual rituals to the purulliya festival is not always clear. Daddi Pecchioli tried to explain that the ritual of the Tetešḫapi in Tawiniya belongs to the purulliya festival. Volkert Haas follows him, but others remain skeptical. While Volkert Haas clearly speaks of the purulliya New Year ritual, others consider this interpretation to be unproven. The description of the festival follows mainly Volkert Haas, who gives the most detailed treatise of the festival in his Hittite religious history.
The celebrations
The exact sequence of the individual ceremonies cannot be determined precisely because no fully coherent text has been preserved. The assignment of individual rituals to the purulliya festival is also viewed differently by different researchers.
Festival rites in Ḫattuša
The prelude is likely to have formed rituals for the renewal of the mortuary temple and palace. It is reported how the king is greeted at the ašuša city gate with a song in Hattic language. Apparently in a carriage he drives to the temple of kurša hunting bags , where the hunting bag of the deity Kantipuitti is venerated with choir singing, drums and rattles. Afterwards, libations are offered to various deities in the temple of the grain goddess Ḫalki , including Parka , the underworld goddess Allatum , the throne and the mother goddess Ḫannaḫanna , as well as the gatekeeper deities “ Šalawaneš of the ašuša city gate”.
The mortuary temple (Heth. Ḫišta house) was renewed on the Purulliya festival . The blacksmiths from Arinna take care of the sun discs, statuettes of gods and other metal objects, the shepherds take care of the kurša hunting bags. Curtains and robes are also renewed. The well at the gate and blocked water pipes are cleaned. In addition, the offerings are brought in, including black mother animals with their black young. The king first goes to the “stone house”. Inside, a woman and the "man from the mortuary temple" offer smoke offerings to Ugur, the god of the dead . In his carriage the king, accompanied by cult personnel with drums and rattles, drives to the mortuary temple, where various deities are sacrificed and the past year is buried, a cult custom , which is also known from Ebla and Babylon .
Associated with the purulliya festival were the palace renewal rituals. In the ritual for the deity Zilipuri , mythical motifs are recited: the gods, after negotiating their responsibilities, set up the throne for the great king ( tabarna ) in Ḫattuša , built the palace using the right building materials and finally opened it to the “Zilipuri, the King “the palace gate. They placed abundance and abundance in the palace and offspring for the royal couple. They appointed the god Sulinkatte as gatekeeper, who ensures that only good things come into the palace. The priest performs rituals with robes, knives, nails, hammers and other utensils. At the end the bulls and sheep are sacrificed.
In the following ritual the king speaks to Ḫalmašuit, the goddess of the throne . He asks her to take him to the mountains. There he would give her a bowl and both would eat from it. He speaks to the goddess: "You protect the mountains!" He, to whom his father, the weather god , and his mother, the sun goddess , gave the land and the kingship, should not come into the house! Then he asks his father, the weather god, to be able to cut down the trees that have grown strong and tall due to the rainstorms for the palace. The goddess of the throne commands the trees to discard all bad qualities within. She sends the eagle to the shore of the sea, where it sees Ištuštaya and papaya how they spin the king's years of life. Knowledgeable weavers stand in front of the window of the palace with fruit-filled containers. The goddess of the throne asks her to bless the king and take ten evils away from him. Then the mountains are stopped to stay in place, including Mount Ḫarka ( Erciyes Dağı ) and Tudḫaliya . The king now goes to the mountains, where his old age is taken away and new youth and fighting strength are given. The sun goddess and the weather god renew their years. They coat his body with shiny pewter, make his head hard as iron, and give it eagle eyes and the mouth of a lion. The vegetation god Telipinu is called to open the pantry and bring wine. All the gods gather in the mountains and honor the king.
Drinking ritual in Tawiniya
In Ḫattuša, the statuette of the goddess Tetešḫapi (hatt. "Great Goddess") is put in a carriage and driven to Tawiniya (possibly Büyüknefes ) together with the entu priestess , accompanied by girls who sing Hattic songs, accompanied by Hittic exclamations also the word wurella before. A drinking ritual is carried out in Tawiniya, led by the entu priestess , in the presence of the royal couple and the priests of Arinna and Zippalanda. The king opens the ceremony. First the weather god and Wašezzil receive drink and bread offerings, accompanied by the great lyre and a choir. Next, various breads and cheeses are offered to the god of war Zababa . After the libation that explores entu -Priesterin the liver oracle of Inar , which is proclaimed by a girl and a boy, while the ḫupiya -People dance. The same thing happens when drinking Zaiu for the deity. Once again there is drinking for a deity whose name is no longer preserved in the text. Again the oracle is proclaimed in the same way. A leopard man shouts hattish sayings that are repeated by girls. A sheep is sacrificed, cut up and placed in a pot. A hunter draws his bow, but does not shoot the arrow, and walks up to the king calling iyi . While a bear man is dancing, someone goes to the pot and takes out the penis, tosses it back in and moves away. This is followed by a ritual with livers and then one with birds.
Now libations are made for a number of deities : first the Inar , then the Tetešḫapi, then the sun goddess and her daughter Mezulla , then the weather god and the weather god of Zippalanda , the Telipinu and the Kattaḫḫa , the Inar and Ḫapantali , the Zababa and Tunturmiša and finally the " auspicious day ", which is a euphemism for the day of death. Then the priestess leaves the temple, sits down in the carriage and takes a turn. An incomprehensible story is told about an antelope with its fawn at a well: “And when I go, the leopard and the wolf fear me; avoid the water - this is Tetešḫapi ”.
The next day the king goes to Zippalanda. The festival of the Tetešḫapi in Tawiniya lasts at least seven days. It has a hunting character, with men of leopards, bears and dogs, hunters and a dagger man who skins the hunted animals.
Zippalanda
In Zippalanda (ev. Çadır Höyük ) the king is received by singing girls. In the drinking ritual, the weather god of Zippalanda and the local deities are worshiped. After a bull and a ram were sacrificed to the weather god of Zippalanda and a cow and a sheep were sacrificed to the sun goddess of the earth , the statuette of the god is carried to the city gate, where the king makes sacrifices to the god, as well as to Ḫašammili and the mountain god Taḫa . In a subsequent ritual, the weather god of Zippalanda is asked to rise from his sweet sleep so that the king can take him to the sacred mountain Taḫa (ev. Kerkenes Dağı), which is near the city. The weather god of Zippalanda and the mountain god are worshiped on the mountain. After a detour to Ankuwa (presumably Alışar Höyük ), torches are lit by Zippalanda in the temple of the weather god and then smoke and burnt offerings are made so that the anger of the weather god of Zippalanda may evaporate. The fragmentary texts name other rituals that took place in Zippalanda, but the exact course of the festivities is no longer recognizable.
Nerik
The pilgrimage to Nerik (probably Oymaağaç Höyük) takes place via the town of Kaštama, the location of which is unknown. From there the local gods Zaliyanu , Zašḫapuna and Tazzuwašši are carried along. Rituals related to the myth of the fight between the weather god and the dragon Illuyanka are performed along the way. On arrival in Nerik, a ticket determines the Zaliyanu as the greatest of the gods and he is placed on the diorite chair above the fountain.
A herald announces the beginning of the purulliya festival. In the temple of the weather god of Nerik , all the gods gather to fill themselves with the offered food and drink offerings. They are asked to speak about the life of the king and queen. Breads and drinks are brought in and animals are sacrificed. After the sacrifices, the queen steps in front of the temple under the great oak of Telipinu , bows and libies, and later the king does the same.
Even before the festival, the priest of the vegetation god Telipinu takes care of the renewal of the "oak of the sacrificial table", which is probably this oak called in Nerik. Two kurša hunting bags and two offering bowls are burned. The “cattle herdsman of the gods” and priest of the god of war Zababa make new hunting bags from six black and two white skins from billy goats. Other devices are also being replaced by new ones.
Sacrifice in Ḫanḫana and Kašḫa
Part of the purulliya festival takes place in Ḫanḫana and neighboring cities. The location of the villages is unknown and is believed to be south of Nerik. These celebrations last six days and are led by a prince. The deity worshiped in the first place is Telipinu, who is embodied in Kašörpa by an oak.
On the first day, three cattle and four sheep are sacrificed in Ḫanḫana. An extended feast follows. On the second day, the prince drives thirty sheep and one cattle, which were previously consecrated in the temple of Telipinu, to the town of Taniškuriya, accompanied by musicians. There they are sacrificed at the stele of the Telipinu. Another feast follows. On the same day in Ḫanḫana a sheep belonging to Telipinu, one of the “sun deity of the gate building” at the place of the Kattaḫḫa , a third at the stele of the Šulinkatte and finally at the city gate one for the gatekeeper deities Šaliwaneš is slaughtered. On the third day the prince drives twelve cattle and two hundred sheep to Kašḫa in the Telipini temple there. A young oak called "Image of Telipinu" is brought from Mount Katala to Kašḫa and erected on the twelve stelae instead of the old oak. Then a sheep is sacrificed at each stele. A feast also ends this day. On the fourth day, the images of gods and tools from the temple are driven to the river on a cart, accompanied by singers and musicians. There the statuettes and utensils are cleaned and then driven back to the temple, where offerings are made. On the fifth day, Bildanḫana takes the picture of Telipinu on a cattle cart to Kašḫa. After two cattle and twenty sheep have been sacrificed, the cult personnel begin to renew the roof of the Telipini temple with clay. Another sheep is sacrificed on each of the twelve steles. The prince goes to Ḫanḫana, where ten cattle and two hundred sheep are sacrificed in the Telipini temple. On the sixth day, the picture of Telipinu is brought back from Kašḫa to ḫanḫana. On arrival three cattle and fifty sheep are slaughtered. Twelve more sheep are driven to Kašḫa and sacrificed in front of the stelae there.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite religion. 1994, p. 696.
- ^ Franca Daddi Pecchioli: Aspects du culte de la divinité Teteshapi. In: Hethitica. Vol. 8, 1987, pp. 361-379.
- ^ Piotr Taracha : Religions of Second Millenium Anatolia (= Dresden contributions to Hittitology. 27). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05885-8 , p. 136.
- ↑ a b Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite religion. 1994, p. 722.
- ↑ Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite religion. 1994, p. 723.
- ↑ Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite religion. 1994, p. 736.
literature
- Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 90-04-09799-6 .