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Pišaišapḫi (also spelled Pišašapḫi) was a
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 ...
mountain god. His name was derived from that of the associated mountain, Pišaiša, which was most likely located next the Mediterranean coast. He is attested in Hurrian and Hittite ritual texts from cities such as Hattusa,
Šapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base an ...
and
Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = F ...
. A Hittite literary text known as ''Myth of Pišaiša'' is focused on him, though its origin and the reading of the names of other deities who play roles in it remains a matter of debate among researchers.


Name and character

The
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 ...
theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), "god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and u ...
Pišaišapḫi had multiple phonetic writings, such as ''Pí-ša-ša-ap-ḫi'', ''Pí-ša-i-ša-ap-ḫi'' or ''Wii-ša-i-ša-ap-ḫi'', which are attested both with and without the “divine determinative” (''
dingir ''Dingir'' (, usually transliterated DIĜIR, ) is a Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess". Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and is con ...
'') preceding the first sign. It is derived from the name of a mountain, Pišaiša, combined with a Hurrian
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
ending and
nisba The Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to: * Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation **comparatively, in Afro-Asiatic: see Afroasiatic_lang ...
, and as such can be translated as "he of Mount Pišaiša". Pišaišapḫi and Mount Pišaiša could both be used as the name of the deity, though the former is more common in known sources. True to his name, he was regarded as a mountain god. He is sometimes paired with a second similar figure, Ḫatni, though in known texts the latter never appears alone. In the
Ugaritic alphabet The Ugaritic writing system is a cuneiform abjad (consonantal alphabet) used from around either 1400 BCE or 1300 BCE for Ugaritic, an extinct Northwest Semitic language, and discovered in Ugarit (modern Ras Al Shamra), Syria, in 1928. It h ...
ic script, the name was rendered as ''pḏḏpḫ''. Dennis Pardee, who vocalizes this form of the name as Piḏaḏapḫi, erroneously refers to this figure as a “Hurrian goddess of unknown characteristics.” A hieroglyphic writing, possibly (DEUS)''Pi-sa4-sà-pa'', has been identified in Yazılıkaya. Relief 26 from this site, which is located between Ugur and a number of unknown deities, might be a depiction of him, though this is not entirely certain. Mount Pišaiša was most likely located in the proximity of the Mediterranean coast. Alfonso Archi argues that a list of mountains written in Hurrian which mentions Pišaiša alongside Ammarik, originally worshiped as a god in
Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
, can be interpreted as evidence for a Syrian location. It has also been proposed that Pišaiša might be the Hurrian name of
Mount Amanus The Nur Mountains ( tr, Nur Dağları, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Amanus ( grc, Ἁμανός), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of sout ...
.


Worship

Pišaišapḫi is well attested in Hurro- Hittite offering lists from Hattusa. He also appears in ' from
Šapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base an ...
, where he is placed alongside Ḫatni after the war god Ḫešui and before
Earth and Heaven ''Earth and Heaven'' is the debut album by the American acid jazz band Repercussions, released in 1995. The album was recorded after the release of Groove Collective's debut album; the bands shared many members. Production The album was produced ...
. In a number of religious texts, such as a Hurrian ritual from
Kizzuwatna Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It enc ...
(KUB 45.21), he appears in association with
Šauška Šauška (also Shaushka, Šauša, Šawuška) was a Hurrian goddess who was also adopted into the Hittite pantheon. Her name has a Hurrian origin and means the great or magnificent one. Character and iconography Shaushka was a goddess of war and ...
. He was also among the deities celebrated in the ' festival, during which he received an offering of
sourdough Sourdough or sourdough bread is a bread made by the fermentation of dough using wild lactobacillaceae and yeast. Lactic acid from fermentation imparts a sour taste and improves keeping qualities. History In the ''Encyclopedia of Food Microbio ...
bread alongside deities such as the “ Lady of the Palace” and
Šuwala Shuwala (Šuwala) was a Hurrian goddess who was regarded as the tutelary deity of Mardaman, a Hurrian city in the north of modern Iraq. She was also worshiped in other Hurrian centers, such as Nuzi and Alalakh, as well as in Ur in Mesopotamia, Hat ...
. A ritual inventory mentions a lion-shaped
rhyton A rhyton (plural rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. A rhyton is typically formed in t ...
dedicated to him. As the mountain Pišaiša, Pišaišapḫi appears in a number of Hittite treaties alongside Lablana and Šariyana, possibly to be interpreted as
Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...
and Mount Hermon (Sirion). In this context he functioned as an oath deity. The name of the mountain is also attested as a
theophoric A theophoric name (from Greek language, Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relat ...
element in Hurrian given names. One example is Ḫazip-Pišapḫi, “Mount Pišaiša granted” from
Tell Leilan Tell Leilan is an archaeological site situated near the Wadi Jarrah in the Khabur River basin in Al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. The site has been occupied since the 5th millennium BC. During the late third millennium, the site was k ...
. Pišaišapḫi was also among the Hurrian deities worshiped in
Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = F ...
. He is attested in the ritual text RS 24.261 which contains sections in both Hurrian and Ugaritic, and describes a ceremony focused on the local Ashtart and Hurrian Šauška which took place in a temple associated with them. In the enumeration of deities receiving offerings during this ritual, he appears alone in line 18, immediately after Anat and
Šimige __NOTOC__ Šimige (in Ugaritic: ''ṯmg'') was the Hurrian sun god. From the 14th century BC he was also worshiped by the Hittites as the Sun god of Heaven. In the Hittite cliff sanctuary at Yazılıkaya, he is depicted as one of the chief deities. ...
(line 17), and before Ḫepat and
Takitu Takitu, Takiti or Daqitu was a Hurrian goddess who served as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ḫepat. She appears alongside her mistress in a number of Hurrian myths, in which she is portrayed as her closest confidante. Her name is usually assume ...
(line 19).


Mythology

Pišaišapḫi appears in a text written in Hittite referred to as the ''Myth of Pišaiša'' (
CTH CTH or cth may refer to * CTH Public Company Limited, Thai cable and satellite TV company * Calum Thomas Hood * Chalmers University of Technology * Honduras Workers' Confederation - Confederación de Trabajadores de Honduras * China General Aviati ...
350.3). In the beginning, he notices a resting naked goddess, designated by the
logogram In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
IŠTAR. He rapes her. She seemingly declares that he is now the enemy of the weather god. Pišaišapḫi, scared of possible consequences, prostrates himself and promises to tell her the story of the weapon weather god used to defeat the sea, which according to Noga Ayali-Darshan’s interpretation was subsequently used by mountains to defeat him in turn. In Alfonso Archi’s explanation of the same text, the order of events is reversed, and the battle of the sea took place after the conflict with the mountains. After this allusion to a rebellion of the mountain gods, Namni and Ḫazzi are mentioned in an unknown role and the tablet breaks off. The myth is commonly described as a translation of a Canaanite composition.
Volkert Haas Volkert may refer to: People *Edward Charles Volkert (1871–1935), American painter *Georg Volkert (1945–2020), German footballer * Stephan Volkert (born 1971), German rower *Volkert Doeksen (born 1963), Dutch money manager *Volkert van der Graa ...
agreed with the classification of this myth as originally Canaanite, though he noted it should be considered the result of a long period of contact between speakers of
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
and
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 ...
. Jared L. Miller and Alfonso Archi refer to it as “Hurro-Canaanite”. Nicla De Zorzi classifies it as “Hurro-Hittite” instead. similarly counts it among Hittite adaptations of Hurrian myths, alongside the cycle of
Kumarbi Kumarbi was an important god of the Hurrians, regarded as "the father of gods." He was also a member of the Hittite pantheon. According to Hurrian myths, he was a son of Alalu, and one of the parents of the storm-god Teshub, the other being Anu ...
, the '' Song of Release'' and other compositions. According to Noga Ayali-Darshan it is more likely to reflect an originally Hurrian, rather than Canaanite, tradition, as indicated by complete absence of Pišaišapḫi from known texts written in any
West Semitic language The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. Ian Rutherford points out the story has no clear parallel in any texts written in any Semitic languages. Daniel Schwemer remarks that it shows a thematic similarity with the Mesopotamian myth ''
Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
and
Ebiḫ Ebiḫ (Ebih) was a Mesopotamian god presumed to represent the Hamrin Mountains. It has been suggested that while such an approach was not the norm in Mesopotamian religion, no difference existed between the deity and the associated location in hi ...
'', but states that a certain connection cannot be established. Taracha assumes that the goddess appearing in this myth is
Šauška Šauška (also Shaushka, Šauša, Šawuška) was a Hurrian goddess who was also adopted into the Hittite pantheon. Her name has a Hurrian origin and means the great or magnificent one. Character and iconography Shaushka was a goddess of war and ...
, though she has also been interpreted as Ishtar. If the Canaanite origin of the myth is presumed, the weather god is accordingly interpreted as
Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...
, though he might also be Hurrian
Teššub 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.& ...
. It has been proposed that the
İmamkullu relief The Hittite İmamkullu relief (previously also ''İmamkulu'') is a rock relief near the town of İmamkullu in Tomarza district in Kayseri Province, Turkey. In Turkish it is known as ''Yazılı Kaya'' ("inscribed cliff") and ''Şimşekkaya'' ("l ...
might be a pictorial representation of the events described in the ''Myth of Pišaiša'', with the figures depicted being Pišaišapḫi, Šauška, Teššub riding in his chariot, and the pair Namni and Ḫazzi. Additionally, the appearance of IŠTAR/Šauška and Pišaišapḫi in sequence in two ritual texts, KBo 14.142 I 10 and KUB 27.13 I 7, has been interpreted as a reference to it.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Hurrian mythology Hurrian deities Hittite deities Ugaritic deities Mountain gods Mythological rapists