Kešši

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Kešši
In-universe information
OccupationHunter
SpouseŠintalimeni
OriginHurrian

Kešši (also

Hurrian deities such as Kušuḫ and Kumarbi and other characters. The Hurrian version preserves sections focused on Kešši's despair after he is asked to donate his emmer, an argument between him and his wife and a number of references to events involving deities. The Hittite passages describe how Kešši abandoned his duties towards the gods and his mother after getting married, a hunting trip and a number of dreams he has in its aftermath. Individual elements of the narrative have been compared to tales focused on other heroes, namely Gurparanzaḫ and Gilgamesh
.

Background

The name Kešši was written in

Song of Going Forth, Song of Release, Song of Ullikummi, Song of the Sea and a local adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh.[6] Gary Beckman classifies it as a "tale",[8] which is a label he applies to literary texts from the Hittite archives which feature human protagonists and do not deal with cosmology, which according to him separates them from myths.[9]

Textual sources

Fragments of the tale of Kešši in multiple languages have been discovered.

Mitanni Empire due to prestige of the language, with a written Hurrian version being a later development reflecting the prestige of Hurrian in Anatolia instead.[12] Due to the state of preservation of the Akkadian Kešši tablet it is impossible determine if its contents directly correspond to any of the known Hurrian passages.[2]

Eva von Dassow based on the plurality of variants concludes that similarly to tales focused on figures such as Gilgamesh and Kumarbi, the story of Kešši "had a life outside their fixation in text".[2]

Story

While it is agreed that all versions of the tale of Kešši record the same central narrative, individual details vary between them.

Ea-šarri are also mentioned, but it remains uncertain what roles they played in the story.[18]

The Hittite version indicates that the story takes place near the mountain Natara and the city of Urma, but neither toponym is attested elsewhere.

Hurrian deity, which according to Volkert Haas makes it possible to assume that all of the mentioned places are to be sought in areas historically inhabited by Hurrians.[15]

In the Hurrian version, Kešši is asked to provide a part of his harvest of emmer, which causes him to weep and then experience dreams pertaining to this misfortune.[14] Another scene might describe Kešši's refusal to hunt, while yet another focuses on an argument between him and his wife in front of an assembly of elders.[17] It is presumed she is portrayed as the party who is in the wrong, possibly due to the influence of her brother.[14]

In the surviving sections of the Hittite version, Kešši's mother remarks that ever since he married Šindalimeni, he started to neglect his duties towards the gods and ceased to hunt to provide for her, which prompts him to go on a hunt, but as his actions have angered the gods, he fails to catch any

ancestor worship.[20] The story resumes after a lacuna with a description of Kešši's dreams and his mother's interpretation of them.[21] However, the text is fragmentary.[22] One of the dreams apparently involves a meteorite.[23]

Comparative scholarship

Hurrian mythology.[18]

The scenes focused on Kešši's dreams and their interpretation has been compared to passages dealing with analogous topics in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[24][25] Similar to how Kešši's dreams are interpreted by his mother, Gilgamesh's are on two separate occasions explained by his mother Ninsun and then by Enkidu.[14] Mary R. Bachvarova remarks that despite the similarities the sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh focused on dream interpretation are absent from the extant fragments of its Hittite adaptation.[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Šintalimeni is also known from a birth incantation, which describes her as a midwife, which according to Mary R. Bachvarova indicates she might have had a more extensive role in Hurro-Hittite literature.[14]
  2. ^ Tadizuli's name is identical with that of a woman betrothed to the hero Gurparanzaḫ in another Hurrian tale.[14]
  3. ^ Mary R. Bacharova suggests his appearance might be connected to Šintalimeni's role as a midwife, as the moon was associated with pregnancy.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bachvarova 2016, p. 28.
  2. ^ a b c d Dassow 2013, p. 147.
  3. ^ a b Ünal 1980, p. 578.
  4. ^ Wilhelm 2004, p. 107.
  5. ^ a b c Archi 2007, p. 198.
  6. ^ a b Dongen 2012, p. 27.
  7. ^ Dassow 2013, p. 137.
  8. ^ Beckman 1997, p. 572.
  9. ^ Beckman 1997, p. 565.
  10. ^ a b Dongen 2012, p. 25.
  11. ^ Archi 2007, p. 191.
  12. ^ a b Wilhelm 1989, p. 58.
  13. ^ Milstein 2015, p. 33.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Bachvarova 2014, p. 285.
  15. ^ a b c Haas 2005, p. 369.
  16. ^ a b Bachvarova 2016, p. 184.
  17. ^ a b c Haas 2006, p. 209.
  18. ^ a b c Wilhelm 1989, p. 62.
  19. ^ Bachvarova 2014, p. 286.
  20. ^ Archi 2013, p. 17.
  21. ^ Haas 2005, p. 370.
  22. ^ Bachvarova 2014, pp. 286–287.
  23. ^ Haas 2005, pp. 370–371.
  24. ^ Haas 2006, p. 207.
  25. ^ Bachvarova 2016, p. 66.

Bibliography

  • CTH 361 in the Konkordanz der hethitischen Keilschrifttafeln database
  • EA 341 (Kešši) in the Sources of Early Akkadian Literature database
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