The ''Story of Appu'' is a mythological

Hittite text The corpus of texts written in the Hittite language is indexed by the ''Catalogue des Textes Hittites'' (CTH, since 1971). The catalogue is only a classification of texts; it does not give the texts. One traditionally cites texts by their numbers in ...

(CTH 360). The text is fragmentary, and the sequence of events in the story is a reconstruction. The text is usually taken as an account of a Hurrian myth, but it does not itself contain any Hurrian names or other vocabulary to support this judgement. The geographical setting is in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

. The reconstructed argument of the text is as follows: Appu is a rich man, but he is unhappy because he has no son. The text hints at the possibility that Appu doesn't know anything about

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

. He sacrifices a

lamb Lamb or The Lamb may refer to: * A young sheep * Lamb and mutton, the meat of sheep Arts and media Film, television, and theatre * ''The Lamb'' (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in his screen debut * ''The Lamb'' (1918 ...

to ask the help of the gods. The sun-god appears and advises him to get drunk and then have sex with his wife. Eventually, Appu's wife gives birth to a first son, named () "bad, evil". At this point the text alludes to a rite of

name-giving A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

, paralleled in the ''

Song of Ullikummi __NOTOC__ In Hurrian mythology, 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 a ...

'', where the newborn is set on the knee of the father. Appu's wife later gives birth to a second son, named () "good, righteous". When both sons have reached adult age, Idalu suggests that they divide the paternal estate among them. He argues that, as each of the gods has his own city, so should they also each have their own

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

. Idalu tricks his brother, taking most of the estate and leaving him only with a barren

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

. But the sun-god blesses the cow and restores her

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

. At this point the first tablet ends and the rest of the story is very fragmentary. It appears to deal with litigation between the brothers; Idalu seems to take Handanza to court before the sun-god at Sippar. When the god rules in favour of Handanza, Idalu curses, and the sun-god refuses to conclude the case, sending the brothers to

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in S ...

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...

to conclude the case.Gwendolyn Leick, ''A dictionary of ancient Near Eastern mythology'' (1991).

References

*Geoffrey William Bromiley, ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'', vol. 4, {{ISBN, 978-0-8028-3785-1, 1995, p. 82. Hittite texts Hurrian mythology Works set in Mesopotamia