Aštabi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aštabi
war god
ConsortBaradu-madu (in Ebla)
Equivalents
Mesopotamian equivalentLugal-Marada, Ninurta or Zababa
Ugaritic equivalentAttar

Aštabi, also known as Aštabil, was a god first attested in Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian beliefs and as a result into the religion of the Hittite Empire.

Origin and attestations[]

Aštabi is regarded as one of the so-called "Syrian substrate deities" by researchers. Other such gods are Ishara, Adamma, Kubaba, Kura and Barama. While present in the Hurrian pantheon and in earlier documents from Ebla, names of members of this group are assumed to have pre-Hurrian and most likely pre-Semitic origin.[1][2][3][4]

He appears in documents from Ebla, Hattusa, Alalakh, Ugarit and Mari.[5] In Ebla and Alalakh a month in the local calendars was named after him.[6]

Role in the pantheon[]

Aštabi was a war god, at least in the Hurro-Hittite context.[7] Despite a considerable number of mentions in known texts, his role in the pantheon of Ebla cannot be presently determined. The available information doesn't necessarily point at the warlike character known from later sources, but continuity of functions cannot be ruled out.[8]

In 3rd millennium BCE Ebla he was sometimes associated with dBa-ra-du ma-du (possibly to be read /BarD-u(m)/), a rarely attested goddess who was most likely his consort[9] and possibly a representation of a river near the city of Ebla (presumably Queiq).[10]

In Yazilikaya he's represented as one of the gods following Teshub in procession (figure 33); in front of him stands Šimige and behind him Nupatik.[11]

Equation with other deities[]

In god lists Aštabi was equated with a variety of other deities of similar characters. An Ugaritic "polyglot" list equated him with the local god Attar and Mesopotamian Lugal-marda (a war god whose cult center was Marad, analogous in part to both Nergal and Ninurta[12]), while a Babylonian god list equated "Aštabinu" with Zababa.[13] In Yazilikaya he's identified as "NIN.URTA."[14]

In Hittite sources he was sometimes equated with , older brother and sukkal of Teshub.[15] However, both appear in the Kumarbi cycle.

Alfonso Archi considers it possible that Nergal's name, found in early Hurrian inscriptions from Urkesh, could be an ideographic stand-in for Aštabi's (similar to how Shaushka's name was ideographically represent as ISHTAR and Teshub's as dISHKUR), though he notes that it's also been proposed that the god represented by it is Kumarbi.[16]

A number of ritual texts from Ugarit feature both Attar and Aštabi at once; it's possible they preserve a Semitic rather than Hurrian tradition, and that they're responsible for the equation of the two in god lists.[17]

In myths[]

Aštabi appears in only one Hurro-Hittite myth, the so-called Song of Ullikummi, part of the cycle of Kumarbi. After the initial defeat of Teshub in combat with the stone monster, the other gods provide Aštabi with chariots. Alongside his 70 unnamed allies he confronts the monster, but fails and falls into the sea. Due to fragmentary nature of the text his ultimate fate is unknown, but is evident that eventually Teshub, rather than the war god, vanquishes Ullikummi, though his second battle with the monster is described in similar terms to Aštabi's attempt. The reference to "seventy gods" is unique in the lght of known Hurrian and Hittite sources, and most likely is a borrowing from the culture of a western Semitic area, such as Ugarit ("seventy sons of Athirat") or Emar ("seventy gods of Emar").[18]

References[]

  1. ^ G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians, 1989, p. 55
  2. ^ A. Archi, The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background [in:] B. J. Collins, P. Michalowski, (eds.) Beyond Hatti. A tribute to Gary Beckman, 2013, p. 15
  3. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 119
  4. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 418
  5. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 416
  6. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 418
  7. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 95
  8. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 416
  9. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 414-416
  10. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 419
  11. ^ A. Archi, The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background [in:] B. J. Collins, P. Michalowski, (eds.) Beyond Hatti. A tribute to Gary Beckman, 2013, p. 10
  12. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 417
  13. ^ N. Ayali-Darshan, The Role of Aštabi in the Song of Ullikummi and the Eastern Mediterranean "Failed God" Stories Prevalent in the East Mediterranean, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1(73), 2014, p. 98
  14. ^ A. Archi, The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background [in:] B. J. Collins, P. Michalowski, (eds.) Beyond Hatti. A tribute to Gary Beckman, 2013, p. 10
  15. ^ M. Dijkstra, Ishtar seduces the Sea-serpent. A New Join in the Epic of Hedammu (KUB 36, 56+95) and its meaning for the battle between Baal and Yam in Ugaritic Tradition, Ugarit-Forschungen 43, 2011, p. 78
  16. ^ A. Archi, The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background [in:] B. J. Collins, P. Michalowski (eds.), Beyond Hatti. A tribute to Gary Beckman, 2013, p. 8
  17. ^ A. Archi, Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II, Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 4, 1997, p. 416-417
  18. ^ N. Ayali-Darshan, The Role of Aštabi in the Song of Ullikummi and the Eastern Mediterranean "Failed God" Stories Prevalent in the East Mediterranean, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1(73), 2014, p. 96-98
Retrieved from ""