Studying external stimuli to the development of the ancient Aegean The ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme from Kumarbi to Kronos via Anatolia. Erik Wilhelmus Maria van Dongen UCL Department of History PhD Thesis - 1 - I, Erik Wilhelmus Maria van Dongen, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. - 2 - Thesis abstract It is commonly accepted nowadays that ancient Aegean culture included many elements that were not indigenous. But scholars still question the importance of these for the development of the region. I contend that such scepticism is mistaken. Ideas about the ancient Aegean’s cultural independence are founded in the history of research in this field, and could be countered by more detailed studies of specific cultural elements. The following issues should be addressed: the likelihood of an indigenous development of elements; reasons for transmission and the process of embedment; the process of transmission. These issues I discuss in the introduction. Next, a case study follows on the connection between the appearances of the ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme in the Hittite Song of Going Forth (‘Song of Kumarbi’) and the Hesiodic Theogony. I explain these by proposing a specific scenario. An analysis of the song shows that it focused on the storm-god more than is commonly assumed. Subsequently, the variant of the theme in the Theogony and its similarities with that of the song are described. Various elements of the theme that appear similarly in the Theogony and the song probably originated outside the Aegean. Their inclusion together implies that the composer of the Theogony knew of a version of the entire song. I suggest that he intended to create a pan-Hellenic genealogical system, and considered this text particularly fit as a framework to structure his poem with. The song was Hurrian originally, and probably connected to kingship legitimisation. This was also its use in the Hittite and Neo-Hittite kingdoms. Intra- Anatolian interaction from ca. 1200-650 BCE is surveyed. The Phrygians probably adopted the song from the Neo-Hittites, perhaps again in the context of kingship rituals. After 750 BCE, the song reached the Aegean, where, soon afterwards, it was used for the Theogony. - 3 - Table of Contents Thesis abstract 3 Table of contents 4 List of figures 8 Preface 9 Prologue: Notes on spelling and terminology 13 1. Introduction: Studying external stimuli to the 18 development of the ancient Aegean 1.1 Subject and aim of this study 18 1.2 History and current state of research 21 1.3 Research methods: A proposal 28 1.3.1 The possible origins of cultural elements: 29 Alternatives to transmission 1.3.2 The recipient society: Reasons for 33 transmission and the process of embedment 1.3.3 The historical perspective: Routes of 34 transmission 1.3.4 Summary 38 1.4 Contents of chapters 2-9 40 2. The ‘Song of Going Forth’ 42 2.1 Context 43 2.1.1 Scholarly history 43 2.1.2 The state of the text 46 2.1.2 The genre of the song: ŠÌR 52 2.1.3 The ‘Kingship in Heaven-Cycle’ 55 2.2 Contents 58 2.2.1 Opening (i 1-11) 58 2.2.2 Alalu, Anu and Kumarbi (i 12-36) 63 2.2.3 Kumarbi’s pregnancy and the birth of 67 - 4 - Table of Contents DKA.ZAL (i 37-46, ii 1-38) 2.2.4 The stone substitute (ii 39-70) 79 2.2.5 The birth of the storm-god, the Aranzaḫ River 84 and other(s) (ii 71-87) 2.2.6 Discussions among the gods (iii 2-40, 62-72) 91 2.2.7 The pregnancy of the earth-goddess (iv 1-27) 100 2.2.8 The colophon (iv 28-35) 103 2.3 Summary 111 3. The ‘Theogony’ 113 3.1 Context 113 3.1.1 What constitutes the Theogony 113 3.1.2 The identity of ‘Hesiod’ 119 3.1.3 Date of the Theogony 123 3.2 Contents: Appearance of the ‘Kingship in Heaven’- 126 theme in the Theogony 3.2.1 Summary of the Theogony 126 3.2.2 Kings in heaven 128 3.2.3 Summary of the theme 130 3.2.4 Challenging the king 131 4. The ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme in the ‘Song of Going 134 Forth’, the ‘Theogony’ and elsewhere 4.1 The theme across southwestern Asia and the eastern 134 Mediterranean 4.1.1 Theogony of Dunnu 136 4.1.2 Enūma Eliš 138 4.1.3 Song of Going Forth 141 4.2 Beyond the comparison: Analysing the Theogony 144 through the Song of Going Forth and vice versa 4.2.1 The creation of the tripartite scheme particular 145 to the Theogony - 5 - Table of Contents 4.2.2 Gaia as a combination of the earth-goddess 146 and Ea 4.2.3 A ‘Titanomachy’ in column four of the Song 151 of Going Forth? 5. The ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme in the contemporary 154 extended Aegean 5.1 General concept of the theme 155 5.1.1 Iliad, Odyssey, Works and Days 156 5.1.2 In the sixth and early fifth centuries BCE 157 5.2 Specific figures and events 163 5.2.1 The kings in heaven: Ouranos, Kronos, Zeus 164 5.2.2 Narrative themes 170 5.3 The possible Indo-European context of the ‘Kingship 173 in Heaven’-theme 5.4 Conclusion: The background of the ‘Kingship in 175 Heaven’-theme as it appears in the Theogony 6. The function of the theme in the Theogony: Framework 178 of a pan-Hellenic theogony 6.1 The development towards pan-Hellenism in the 179 eighth and seventh century Aegean 6.2 Mythological syncretism through divine genealogies 184 in the Theogony 6.2.1 Genealogies in the Theogony 184 6.2.2 Styx and Hekate 187 6.2.3 Prometheus 190 6.2.4 Gaia and Χάος 191 6.2.5 The Titans 192 6.2.6 The Nereids and the Okeanids 194 6.2.7 Remaining genealogies 195 6.3 The function of the ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme in 196 the Theogony and the composition of the poem - 6 - Table of Contents 7. Survival of the ‘Song of Going Forth’ after the Late 199 Bronze Age 7.1 Historical background 199 7.1.1 The Hurrians 200 7.1.2 The Hittites 202 7.1.3 The Neo-Hittites 204 7.2 The Song of Going Forth in the Late Bronze Age 205 and the Iron Age 7.2.1 The Hittite context 206 7.2.2 After the Late Bronze Age 212 8. The overland route: Intra-Anatolian interaction ca. 221 1200-650 BCE 8.1 State of the subject 221 8.2 Geography, habitation, history 226 8.2.1 The Neo-Hittites and the southeast 227 8.2.2 The Phrygians and others in central Anatolia 228 8.2.3 Western Anatolia 232 8.3 Interaction 235 8.3.1 Evidence for interaction in the written sources 235 8.3.2 Evidence for interaction in material culture 238 8.4 Summary: The ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme from 241 the Neo-Hittites to the Aegean 9. Summary and evaluation 245 9.1 The ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme from Kumarbi to 245 Kronos via Anatolia: Summary 9.2 Studying external stimuli to the development of the 247 ancient Aegean: Evaluation Abbreviations 250 Bibliography 253 - 7 - Figures Fig. 2.1: Columns one and two of CTH 344.A. 48 Fig. 2.2: Columns three and four of CTH 344.A. 49 Fig. 3.1: The tripartite scheme of the succession of divine kings 132 particular to the ‘Theogony’. Fig. 7.1: The world of the Hurrians in the fifteenth to fourteenth 201 century BCE. Fig. 7.2: The world of the Hittites in the fourteenth to thirteenth 203 century BCE. Fig. 7.3: The world of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms in the twelfth to 204 eighth century BCE. Fig. 8.1: Geographical map of Anatolia. 225 Fig. 8.2: Political map of Anatolia and Syria in the Iron Age 226 (ca. 1200-650 BCE). I would like to thank Akademie Verlag (figs. 2.1, 2.2: KUB 33.119, KUB 33.120, KUB 36.1, KUB 36.31, KUB 48.97), Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Hethitische Forschungen (fig. 2.2: KBo 52.10), M. Wäfler (figs. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.2) and G.M. Nocera (fig. 8.1) for their kind permission to use materials from their publications. - 8 - Preface In a sense, work on this thesis started in 2002. In that year, during a class on Greek literature at the Radboud University Nijmegen, I heard about the work by Burkert and West on external stimuli to the development of the ancient Aegean. This subject immediately struck me as interesting, not only in itself, but also because of its importance for ideas about the cultural history of ‘modern western culture’. To my mind, in turn these also influence ideas about the relation between ‘west’ and ‘east’ in the current day. Consequently, I read Burkert’s The Orientalizing Revolution (1992b) and West’s The East Face of Helicon (1997), the most famous books of this field of study, and decided that I wanted to do something with this subject for my MA thesis. But in the course of my studies, I became sceptic. Many ideas concerning specific stimuli and their transmission appeared to be difficult to accept in their current form.