Announcements
To any confused students:
With my co-professor's recent retirement, there may be some slightly confusing references to other instructors in the lessons (Professor Morgan). I am slowly beginning the process to ensure that this confusion is mitigated, but it will take some time. All lessons will eventually indicate the correct professor, and credits to the original author will be indicated at the bottom of the lesson itself. Slight modifications will be made in order to make this happen, as some descriptions, personal details, or reasoning will no longer make sense as it pertains to me, but these changes will be minimal and cosmetic.
In the meantime, this is an excellent opportunity to point out any issues of spelling, grammar, or content to me, as I will be going through each lesson individally. I can be contacted via owl.
Lesson 8) The Hurrians and the Hittites
Professor Morgan places a small, cylindrical object at the front of her desk. She grabs a hunk of potter’s clay and rolls it out while the students finish taking their seats. With a flick of her wand, the cylinder turns sideways, gently presses itself into the clay, and rolls one full turn of its diameter. Professor Morgan swishes her wand up, and the cylinder pops off the clay to stand up on its end once more. With all the students finally settled in their seats, Professor Morgan gently lifts up the clay and shows her work to the class.
Welcome back, students! The item I have just demonstrated for you is called a Cylinder Seal. Used primarily in Ancient Mesopotamia, these cylinders often depict a god or goddess, or sometimes even a mythological event. Have a closer look! It’s a rather interesting technique for creating multiple pieces of the same artwork.
Sumerian Cylinder Seal and imprint
A Brief overview of the Hurrians and Hittites
Today we will be discussing the mythology of the Hurrians (sometimes, especially in older Muggle texts, called Hurrites) and Hittites. The Hittites may seem a bit strange to be covering in our discussion of Africa and the Middle East as it was located at the eastern edge of Europe; however their mythology was directly influenced by several other civilizations, most especially their Hurrian neighbours.
Map depicting Hurrian Kingdoms circa 2300 BCE
The Hurrian Kingdom (in purple above) lasted from approximately 2300 B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E., when the land became part of the Middle Assyrian Empire. Their Hittite neighbours to the north west emerged around 1600 B.C.E. until 1178 B.C.E. The overlap of the two civilizations is key to understanding how Hurrian influences are quite prominent in Hittite mythology.
The Hurrian Gods
The first thing to note about the Hurrian gods is that their “high gods,” those gods who created the Earth and Heavens, are directly borrowed from the Sumerian Pantheon. Anu, Enlil, Ea, and others are not only present in the Hurrian myths, but also conform to the same roles as in the Sumerian myths. For example, Ea is still the supreme ruler of the gods in the Heavens.
The rest of the Hurrian gods are tied directly with the natural functions of the planet - that is storms, rising tides, changing season, and growth or agriculture. It would be fair to say that this particular set of gods were the gods of the Earth and the high gods were the gods of the Heavens. While there are many of these gods, the primary ones we will be studying are Kumarbi (father of the gods), his sons Teshub (storm god) and Ullikummi (somewhat like a Greek titan), and Shaushka (or Ishtar, goddess of love and fertility).
Royalty in the Sky
One of the most significant stories in Hurrian mythology is the rise of Kumarbi to power. If we think back to Sumerian mythology, Anu (or An) was the god of the Sky (not to be confused with the Heavens). Kumarbi wanted to rule the sky, and so he fought with Anu and won by consuming, well, let’s just say a rather delicate part of Anu’s anatomy. Anu fled to the Heavens, but warned Kumarbi that the items he consumed would create three great gods that would lead to his destruction.
Kumarbi attempted to rid himself of the parts, but was only partially successful, and eventually gave “birth” to his son Teshub who controlled the storms. Teshub eventually rose to depose Kumarbi from the throne and ruled over the sky and the lesser gods.
The Song of Ullikummi
Of course, Kumarbi was not impressed that this unwanted son had taken the throne and so he sought to depose Teshub. He mated with a stone and his second son, Ullikummi, was created. Ullikummi was made of diorite - an extremely hard volcanic stone akin to granite. This gigantic creature marched on Teshub’s city and overthrew him easily.
Teshub could not bear having the realm ruled by Kumarbi and Ullikummi, so he petitioned the high god Ea to intercede. Ea agreed with Teshub, so, using the same saw he had previously used to separate Heaven and Earth, cut Ullikummi at the ankles, destroying the creature and thwarting Kumarbi. Teshub returned once again to the throne, and it seems that Kumarbi made no further attempts to reclaim the throne, nor sire any other children under odd circumstances!
Where’s the Magic? With the Basilisks and Dragons?
What is interesting about these myths is the serious lack of magic associated with the stories. They are simply struggles for the succession of rulers. At first glance it seems that perhaps there were not a lot of overtly practitioning witches and wizards in the Hurrian and Hittite civilizations; however we know this to be absolutely incorrect. In fact, there was a small kingdom on the border of the two named Kizzuwatna that was ripe with magical practitioners.
What years of research done by scholars has revealed is that, as with many ancient civilizations, magic was such a normal part of everyday life that its presence was not worth mentioning as anything out of the ordinary. What was worth mentioning, however, were magical creatures.
We know that Herpo the Foul was the first dark wizard to breed a basilisk early in the time of the Ancient Greeks (approx 800 B.C.E.). While this may have been the first instance of a basilisk, there is a certain Hittite myth surrounding the great serpent Illuyanka that has magianthropologists and magizoologists wondering about possible ancient relatives to these terrible creatures. Illuyanka was described as a gigantic eel-like creature who warred against the gods and was known to target their hearts and eyes.
It is the shape of the creature, coupled with its targeting of the victims eyes that has us all wondering if the creature could be related to a basilisk, because, as you are well aware, the eyes of the basilisk will kill a victim if seen directly and it certainly resembles a giant eel. While the debate still remains as to whether this serpent could be a relative of a basilisk or was simply a powerful dragon still rages on in academic circles, it was certainly a creature that terrified the ancient Hittite civilization even after it had been slayed by Tarhunt, the Hittite equivalent of Teshub.
A modern depiction of Illuyanka
And on that rather grim note, we shall end our discussion for today! Do not fear, the professors take regular trips down to the Chamber of Secrets to ensure that no horrifying creatures have taken up residence. Our next and final class of Year Four will focus on commonalities between African and Middle Eastern mythologies, as well as provide a brief introduction on the practical application of mythology to field work. You will also be writing your final exams after next class, so it is time to get studying!
Today’s assignment is a quiz that will hopefully leave you enough time to review for your finals. Sweet dreams!
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Sources:
Cotterell, Arthur & Storm, Rachel. 1999. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. Hermes House Anness Publishing Ltd. New York.
Grimal, Pierre. Ed. 1965. Larousse World Mythology. Paul Hamlyn, Ltd. London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites
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