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DYING and RISING GODS Implying That Telepinu Himself Has Been There

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DYING and RISING GODS Implying That Telepinu Himself Has Been There 481 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LIX N° 5-6, september-december 2002 482 Mettinger’s careful examination of Ugaritic material easily reaches the conclusion that there is a fundamental difference between celebrations in remembrance of the death of suc- cessive kings and their access to divine life, and a mytholo- gical prototype of the eternal cycle of seasons, represented at Ugarit by Baal’s death and return. In the reviewer’s opinion, the Author here stresses too much the difference between the Baal-Mot myth and the Telepinu myth (pp. 78-79). The lin- guistically oldest version of the Hittite myth mentions seven doors and seven bars of the Netherworld, in which Telepi- nu’s wrath should be locked forever4. This version apparently connects the wrath of the deity with the Netherworld, DYING AND RISING GODS implying that Telepinu himself has been there. Besides, the first manifestations of Telepinu’s disappearance are suffoca- The concept of “dying and rising gods” in the Ancient Near ting heat, scorched earth, and drought, thus recording a basic East attained a prominent place in the history of religions seasonal pattern, despite the secondary use of the myth in thanks to J.G. Frazer’s prodigious work The Golden Bough, magical rituals which aimed at appeasing the god and win- reissued in 1907-15. Frazer’s data on ethnology were second ning his favour5. Therefore, no functional difference seems hand and partly inaccurate, but his theories on religion were to distinguish the original myth of the disappearing god from highly stimulating and the topic of “dying and rising gods” the myth of the dying god. obtained an unexpected boost from the mythological texts The case of Melqart-Heracles is somewhat different, since found in Ugarit. Gods’ life and death in the Semitic myths are this divine character probably derived in the early first mil- presented in M.C.A. Korpel’s work, A Rift in the Clouds, as lennium B.C. from the deified eponym of the royal dynasty, follows: “The god Ba‘lu dies, but he does resurrect after ‘seven “the king of the city”. Being a city-god, Melqart does not years’, even though he is said to have been crushed between have characteristics of a vegetation or fertility god and his the jaws of Death (Motu). The latter himself rises to confront connection with a seasonal pattern is probably due to the fact Ba‘lu again though ‘Anatu has utterly destroyed him. The mes- that he assumed the function of another deity. He appears sage would seem to be that eternal life is indeed attainable for nevertheless as a “dying and rising god” in relation with cul- those who enjoy the status of divinity, but that it is an eternal tic celebrations, but the tradition of his death on a pyre on cycle of dying and reviving”1. An opposite view was defen- Mount Oeta or elsewhere should be re-examined in the light ded a few years ago by M.S. Smith2, who refers to KTU 1.161 of new data. (RS 34.126) and argues that the poetical accounts of Baal’s In fact, the B‘l Kr of the Vase from Sidon appears now as death and revival just borrow the language used in the cult of a distinct deity Kura or Kurra, not only in texts from Ebla deceased kings and ancestors without referring to a cultual dating to the third millennium B.C., but also in documents concept and ritual of “dying and rising gods”. from the 7th century B.C., when a god dKur-a or Kur-ra T.N.D. Mettinger’s study3 presents a survey of the research appears in personal names of northern Mesopotamia6. B‘l Kr (pp. 15-53) and then aims at solving the antinomy by an accu- is also mentioned in the Phoenician inscription from Cebeli- rate examination of the Baal-Mot myth (pp. 55-81), of the reis Da™ı7, dating to the mid-7th century B.C., and W. Röllig Melqart-Heracles case (pp. 83-111), of the Adonis myth (pp. suggests to isolate this name in the B‘l Krntry· of the Kara- 113-154), and of the available indications on Eshmun-Ascle- tepe inscriptions8. Following this suggestion, we would pro- pius (pp. 155-165). The function of these West-Semitic dei- pose to see there the divine name B‘l Kr with the epithet ties is then compared with the role of Osiris in Egyptian reli- Ntry·, which parallels the hieroglyphic Luwian title arha usa- gion (pp. 167-183) and the role of Dumuzi-Tammuz in nuwamis, “highly-blessed” or “munificent”. Ntry· - with the Mesopotamia (pp. 185-215). The Author concludes (pp. 217- nominal ending -· - exactly corresponds to the theophorous 223) that “dying and rising gods” were in fact worshipped in element Natr(i)- that appears in Anatolian proper names and the Ancient Near East and that they had close ties to the sea- occurs as the equivalent of Apollo in the trilingual inscrip- sonal cycle of plant life, although they belonged to different tion from Xanthos, in line 4 of the Lycian text9. According divine types. The Hebrew Bible offers no evidence that Yah- weh was a “dying and rising god”, while the case of Jesus, in the Author’s opinion, may be “studied with profit against 4) H.A. Hoffner, Hittite Myths, Atlanta 1990, p. 17; cf. M. Popko, Reli- gions of Asia Minor, Warsaw 1995, p. 87. the background of Jewish resurrection belief” (p. 221). A 5) M. Popko, op. cit. (n. 4), p. 106. large bibliography (pp. 227-257) and five indexes (pp. 261- 6) E. Lipi<ski, Dieux et déesses de l’univers phénicien et punique (Ori- 272) enhance the value of the work that presents a major ent. Lov. An. 64), Leuven 1995, pp. 239-240; W. Röllig, “Phönizisches aus interest to scholars and students of the Bible, of comparative Nordsyrien und der God Kurra”, in K. Geus - K. Zimmermann (eds.), Punica-Libyca-Ptolemaica. Festschrift für Werner Huss (Orient. Lov. An. religions, and of the Ancient Near East in general. 104), Leuven 2001, pp. 41-52 (see pp. 46-52). 7) P.G. Mosca - J. Russell, “A Phoenician Inscription from Cebel Ires Da™ı in Rough Cilicia”, in Epigraphica Anatolica 9 (1987), pp. 1-28 and 1) M.C.A. Korpel, A Rift in the Clouds, Münster 1990, p. 320. Pls. 1-4, line 5B. 2) M.S. Smith, “The Death of ‘Dying and Rising Gods’ in the Biblical 8) W. Röllig, art. cit. (n. 6), p. 49. World: An Update, with Special Reference to Baal in the Baal Cycle”, in 9) For the divine name Natr(i)-, see G. Neumann, “Namen und Epikle- Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 12 (1998), pp. 257-313. sen lykischer Götter”, in Florilegium Anatolicum. Mélanges offerts à 3) T.N.D. Mettinger, The Riddle of Resurrection: “ Dying and Rising Emmanuel Laroche, Paris 1970, pp. 259-271 (see p. 263); R. Lebrun, “Prob- Gods” in the Ancient Near East. (Coniectanea Biblica. Old Testament lèmes de religion anatolienne”, in Hethitica 8 (1987), pp. 241-262 (see Series 50). Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm, 2001. (23 cm, pp. 244 and 255, n. 6); W. Jenniges, Mystagogus Lycius, Bruxelles 1996, 275). ISBN 91-22-01945-6. p. 37; D. Schürr, “Kaunos in lykischen Inschriften”, in Kadmos 37 (1998), 483 DYING AND RISING GODS 484 to Dio Chrysostom (ca. 40-112 A.D.), Apollo was a local is not referred to in a cultual context before De Dea Syria, deity of Tarsus in Cilicia10 and we may assume that this god about the 2nd century A.D. True, one might wonder whether was called Ntry·. For sure, “Apollo” was only a Greek sur- the ritual cry aîa⁄ ’´Adwnin, recorded by Aristophanes, rogate of a local theonym. In the light of these data, Kr does Lysistrata 393, and Bion I, 28, does not echo a Phoenician not seem to be a genitival qualification of B‘l, but the proper shout Ωay ’Ad¨n¬, “alive is Adonis!”, despite the funerary name of a deity, used in apposition to the generic b‘l. The Greek context. Although such a formula, parallel to Ωy yhwh, iconography of the Vase from Sidon seems then to refer to may have been used in the cult, there is so far no prove that Kur(r)a, not to Melqart. On the other hand, Heracles’ death this was the case. Instead, if one admits that god’s death, on the pyre records Sanda’s festival at Tarsus, when a great disappearance or absence have the same function in agrarian pyre was erected and burnt. The ceremony is alluded to by myths, it is quite clear that a threefold seasonal pattern17 sup- Dio Chrysostom, who identifies Sanda with Heracles11, very ports the Solomonic judgment of Zeus who attributes Ado- likely knowing the episode of Mount Oeta. nis for one part of the year to Persephone, the Queen of the Sanda, probably equated in Persian times with the Baal of Netherworld, to Aphrodite for another part, leaving a third Tarsus (B‘l Trz)12 and identified with Nergal13, was thus season at the disposition of Adonis himself (pp. 118-119). regarded by the Greeks as a Heracles. It would seem there- Adonis’ return from the Netherworld fulfils then the same fore that the tradition of Heracles’ death in flames has some function as resurrection to life. This scene seems to be repre- connection with this syncretism, which should be further exa- sented on an Etruscan mirror, which depicts a shepherd sit- mined.
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