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Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, Ullikummi is a giant stone monster, son of Kumarbi and the sea god's daughter, Sertapsuruhi, or a female cliff. The language of the literary myth in its existing redaction is Hittite, in cuneiform texts recovered at Bogaskoy, where some Hurrian fragments of the "Song of Ullikummi" have been found. ''See'' Guterbock (1951). The "song of Ullikummi" was recognized from its first rediscovery as a predecessor of

Greek myth A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of d ...

s in

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...

. Parallels to the Greek myth of

Typhon Typhon (; grc, Τυφῶν, Typhôn, ), also Typhoeus (; grc, Τυφωεύς, Typhōeús, label=none), Typhaon ( grc, Τυφάων, Typháōn, label=none) or Typhos ( grc, Τυφώς, Typhṓs, label=none), was a monstrous serpentine giant an ...

, the ancient antagonist of the thunder-god

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

, have been elucidated by Burkert.

The story of Ullikummi

The narrative of Ullikummi is one episode, the best preserved and most complete, in an epic cycle of related "songs" about the god Kumarbi, who aimed to replace the weather god

Teshub Teshub (also written Teshup, Teššup, or Tešup; cuneiform ; hieroglyphic Luwian , read as ''Tarhunzas'';Annick Payne (2014), ''Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts'', 3rd revised edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. ...

and destroy the city of Kummiya; to this end Kumarbi fathered upon a rock cliff a genderless, deaf, blind, yet sentient volcanic rock monster, Ullikummi, which he hid in the

netherworld Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to: *Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies Film and television * ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film *''Nethe ...

and placed on the shoulder of

Upelluri Upelluri or Ubelluri was a primordial giant in Hurrian mythology. He is only known from the ''Song of Ullikummi'', which is one of the few Hurrian texts offering a view of this culture's cosmology. It was believed that Upelluri was already aliv ...

. Upelluri, absorbed in his meditations, did not feel Ullikummi on his shoulder.Upelluri stands in the netherworld, holding the earth and sky on his shoulder like the Greek Atlas; a mere giant such as Ullikummi is barely noticeable, although Upelluri does feel a bit of pain in his shoulder once Ullikummi has grown up. Ullikummi grew quickly until he reached the heavens. Ullikummi's brother

thundered and rained on Ullikummi, but it did not harm him. Teshub fled and abdicated the throne.The weather god and his vizier and brother, Tasmisu, are defeated in their first battle with Ullikummi, as Tasmisu relates to Teshub's wife, Hebat; as a result Teshub is banished to a "little place," probably meaning a grave. Teshub asked Ea for help.Ea, who lives in the Apsu, underground source of earth's waters, obtains the toothed cutting tool with which heaven and earth were cut apart shortly after creation; this tool will disable Ullikummi. Ea visited Upelluri and cut off the feet of Ullikummi, toppling him That is, Ea cuts Ullikummi loose from Upelluri's shoulder and then urges the weather god to fight again; the end of the story is broken away and scholars simply assume Ullikummi is finally defeated.Haas, Volkert (2006) pp 130-176.

Notes

References

Sources

* Burkert, Walter. (1979). "Von Ullikummi zum Kaukasus: Die Felsgeburt des Unholds", ''Würzburger Jahrbücher'' N.F., 5, pp 253–261. * Burkert, Walter. ''Oriental and Greek Mythology'', pp. 19–24. * Guterbock, Hans Gustav (1951–1952). "The Song of Ullikummi: Revised Text of the Hittite Version of a Hurrian Myth" ''Journal of Cuneiform Studies'' 5 (4), pp 135–161, (1951); 6 (1), pp 8–42, (1952) and in succeeding issues. * Haas, Volkert. (2006). Die hethitische Literatur: Texte, Stilistik, Motive. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp 130–176. * Hoffner, H. A. Jr. (1990). "The Song of Hedammu". ''Hittite Myths'', pp 48–57. Atlanta.

External links

* {{Portal, Mythology, Asia Hurrian legendary creatures