Alalu

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Alalu
Primordial god
Other namesAlala, Alal
AffiliationHurrian primeval deities
Major cult centerEmar
Personal information
Spouse
  • Belili (in Mesopotamia)
  • possibly Amizzadu (in Hurrian tradition)
Children
  • Anu (in Mesopotamia)
  • Kumarbi (in Hurrian tradition)

Alalu or Alala was a primordial figure in Mesopotamian and Hurrian mythology. He is also known from documents from Emar, where he was known as Alal. While his role was not identical in these three contexts, it is agreed that all three versions share the same origin. Hurrian Alalu, who plays the role of the oldest king of gods in the Kumarbi Cycle, is the best known, and is commonly discussed in scholarship focused on comparative mythology but it is agreed Mesopotamian Alala represents the oldest tradition regarding this being. However, the precise etymology of his name is unknown, and likely neither Sumerian nor Semitic. Both Hurrian and Mesopotamian sources attest an association between him and Anu, but its nature varies between cultures.

Mesopotamian sources

The origin of the name Alala is not known, and in scholarship it is tentatively grouped with other

Aruru or Bunene.[1]

Alala is known from the so-called Theogony of Anu, a name

Belet-ili is regarded as baseless today,[6] and the actual etymology of her name is unknown.[1]

A late text equates Alala with two other primordial figures, Enmesharra and Lugaldukuga.[7] Lugaldukuga was regarded as the father or grandfather of Enlil in some traditions,[7] while Enmesharra was a god listed alongside his ancestors but usually not explicitly identified as one of them.[8] A tradition in which he was Enlil's paternal uncle is also known.[9]

A mention of Alala "coming down to the land" in the distant past "before creation" is known from a brief mythological introduction to a late

Girra represented deified fire.[6] Volkert Haas instead argued he was considered a personification of storm surge.[12]

Hurrian and Hittite sources

A relief from the Yazılıkaya sanctuary depicting primeval deities.

It is agreed that the

Hurrian god Alalu was a figure of Mesopotamian origin.[3][13][14][15] He was regarded as one of the enna turena or ammadena enna, so-called "primeval gods" inhabiting the underworld.[16] This group of deities is depicted on one of the reliefs from the Yazılıkaya sanctuary.[17] Like its other members, Alalu could serve as a divine witness of international treaties,[18] one example being that between Hittite king Muwatalli II and Alaksandu.[19] Only two ritual texts, one purely Hurrian and one Hurro-Hittite, mention Alalu, in both cases among the primeval gods.[20]

Mythology

Alalu is mentioned in the proem of the first part of the

Song of Emergence, a Hittite adaptation of Hurrian myths which relays that "formerly, in ancient times" he was the king of the gods ("king in heaven"), but in the ninth year of his reign he was overthrown by his cup-bearer, Anu, and as a result had to flee to the Dark Earth, the underworld.[21] Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that a hitherto unknown Mesopotamian myth about confrontation between Alala and Anu existed and inspired the Hurro-Hittite tradition regarding their conflict.[22] According to Christopher Metcalf, the motif of a cup-bearer rising to the position of a ruler is likely Mesopotamian in origin, as evidenced by its earlier appearance in a legend about the historical emperor Sargon of Akkad and the legendary king Ur-Zababa.[23] After escaping, Alalu plays no further role in the narrative.[24] The origin of the three primordial kings of the gods, Alalu, Anu and Kumarbi, who after a violent struggle succeeded Anu, is not explained,[25] though in one passage Kumarbi is referred to as Alalu's "seed".[26] Furthermore, according to Mary R. Bachvarova he addresses himself as "Alalu's son" in another myth belonging to the same cycle, Song of Ḫedammu.[27] According to Anna Maria Polvani, the possibility that Alalu was considered Kumarbi's father is also supported by the fact they could occur in sequence among divine witnesses of treaties.[28]

While it is sometimes assumed that Alalu was the father of Anu, similar to his Mesopotamian counterpart,

Tashmishu and others), a result of Kumarbi's castration of Anu,[25] which resulted in a "burden", Anu's seed, being placed inside him.[26] The process is poetically compared to production of bronze from tin and copper.[26]

Alalu's pair among the primeval deities, who usually appear in fixed groups of two or three, was Amizzadu,[18] also spelled Amezzadu.[25] Mary R. Bachvarova identifies this deity as his wife.[27] She is mentioned alongside an unknown deity in the role of parents of another, also unidentified, figure in the Song of Emergence, followed by the parents of Ishara.[25] According to Mary R. Bachvarova, she's also mentioned in an unknown context by Kumarbi in the Song of Ḫedammu right after he calls himself the son of Alalu.[27] Volkert Haas suggests that Amezzadu and Belili might have been considered analogous to each other.[29] However, Gernot Wilhelm [de] argues that Amizzadu was male, like all other Hurrian primeval deities who did not originate in Mesopotamia.[30]

Comparative scholarship

Scholars have pointed out the similarities between the Hurrian myth about kingship in Heaven and the succession of Greek gods in Hesiod's Theogony.[31] However, an equivalent of Alalu, a primordial king reigning before the sky god, is absent from Greek mythology.[32]

A similar theogony, compared with the Hurrian myth as early as in 1955, was also described by

Elus (identified with Cronos); Elus was then defeated by "Zeus-Demarous" (Hadad).[33] Philo states that Elyon was also known as Hypsistos, and that he was killed by wild animals during a hunt.[34] Hypsistos (Ὕψιστος, "most high") is known as an epithet of various deities in Hellenistic sources.[35]

Emariote sources

Alalu was worshiped in

ancestor worship and etymologically related to pits used to communicate with underworld deities attested in Hurrian and Mesopotamian sources.[42] Offerings provided for it included honey, oil, ghee, doves, beef, venison, lambs and fruit.[43] Theophoric names invoking Alalu are attested in texts from Emar.[44] One example is Alal-abu.[45]

Festivals

Alal consistently appears in the eighth position in offering lists from the local zukru festival.

Dagan, dNIN.KUR or dNIN.URTA, he appears in only one hypostasis in texts pertaining to it.[47] John Tracy Thames states that he can be considered a member of what he deems the "first tier" of deities celebrated during it,[46] a designation he uses for the members of the local pantheon who received the most offerings in this context, namely five calves and ten lambs each.[48] However, he stresses that the hierarchical arrangement attested in the zukru texts is unique to this festival and does not reflect a universal hierarchy of deities in Emar.[49]

Alal is also attested in the kissu festival of Dagan.[50] Four offering tables were set during it, with two meant for Dagan, Ishara and dNIN.URTA, and two for underworld deities, Alal and Amaza.[51] They are described in this context as "the gods below".[52]

References

  1. ^ a b Rubio 2010, p. 39.
  2. ^ a b Lambert 2013, p. 417.
  3. ^ a b Wiggermann 1992, p. 156.
  4. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 418.
  5. ^ a b Lambert 2013, p. 448.
  6. ^ a b c d e Lambert 2013, p. 425.
  7. ^ a b Lambert 2013, p. 302.
  8. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 406.
  9. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 284.
  10. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 399.
  11. ^ Lambert 2013, pp. 424–425.
  12. ^ Haas 1994, p. 83.
  13. ^ Archi 2009, p. 211.
  14. ^ Litke 1998, pp. 22–23.
  15. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 126.
  16. ^ Taracha 2009, pp. 125–126.
  17. ^ Wilhelm 2014, pp. 346–347.
  18. ^ a b c d e Archi 1990, p. 120.
  19. ^ Archi 1990, p. 116.
  20. ^ Archi 1990, p. 118.
  21. ^ Beckman 2011, p. 27.
  22. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 423.
  23. ^ Metcalf 2021, pp. 154–157.
  24. ^ a b Metcalf 2021, p. 155.
  25. ^ a b c d Beckman 2011, p. 26.
  26. ^ a b c Bachvarova 2013, p. 155.
  27. ^ a b c Bachvarova 2013, p. 159.
  28. ^ Polvani 2008, p. 619.
  29. ^ a b c Haas 1994, p. 110.
  30. ^ Wilhelm 2014, p. 346.
  31. ^ Bachvarova 2013, p. 154.
  32. ^ Metcalf 2021, p. 168.
  33. ^ Pope 1955, p. 56.
  34. ^ Pope 1955, p. 57.
  35. ^ Belayche 2011, pp. 139–140.
  36. ^ Thames 2020, pp. 173–174.
  37. ^ Fleming 1992, p. 171.
  38. ^ a b c Thames 2020, p. 121.
  39. ^ Fleming 1992, p. 205.
  40. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 59.
  41. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 177.
  42. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 188.
  43. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 287.
  44. ^ Beckman 2002, p. 50.
  45. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 23.
  46. ^ a b Thames 2020, p. 166.
  47. ^ Thames 2020, p. 172.
  48. ^ Thames 2020, p. 167.
  49. ^ Thames 2020, p. 174.
  50. ^ Fleming 1992, p. 74.
  51. ^ Fleming 1992, p. 125.
  52. ^ Fleming 2000, p. 195.

Bibliography

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