Kumarbi
Kumarbi, also known as Kumurwe, Kumarwi and Kumarma, was a Hurrian god. He held a senior position in the Hurrian pantheon, and was described as the "father of gods". He was portrayed as an old, deposed king of the gods, though this most likely did not reflect factual loss of the position of the head of the pantheon in Hurrian religion, but only a mythological narrative. It is often assumed that he was an agricultural deity, though this view is not universally accepted and the evidence is limited. He was also associated with prosperity. It was believed that he resided in the underworld.
Multiple Hurrian deities were regarded as Kumarbi's children, including Teshub, whom he conceived after biting off the genitals of Anu. They were regarded as enemies. In myths dealing with the conflict between them Kumarbi fathers various enemies meant to supplant the weather god, such as the stone giant Ullikummi. Kumarbi was also closely associated with other deities who were regarded as the "fathers of gods" in their respective pantheons. As early as in the eighteenth century BCE, he came to be linked with Dagan, the head god of the pantheon of inland Syria in the Bronze Age. Both of them were associated with the goddess Shalash, and with the Mesopotamian god Enlil. From the sixteenth century BCE onward, and possibly also earlier, Kumarbi and Enlil were viewed as equivalents, though they were not necessarily conflated with each other, and could appear as two distinct figures in the same myths. A trilingual version of the Weidner god list from Ugarit presents both Kumarbi and Enlil as the equivalents of the local god El. A tentative restoration of a bilingual version from Emar might also indicate he could be associated with Ištaran.
The worship of Kumarbi is attested from sites located in all areas inhabited by the Hurrians, from Anatolia to the Zagros Mountains, though it has been argued that his importance in the sphere of cult was comparatively minor. The oldest possible reference to him occurs in a royal inscription from Urkesh from either the Akkadian or Ur III period, though the correct reading of the name of the deity meant is a matter of scholarly debate. He is also already referenced in texts from Mari from the early second millennium BCE. Further attestations are available from Ugarit, Alalakh, and from the eastern kingdom of Arrapha, where he was worshiped in Azuḫinnu. Furthermore, he was incorporated into the Hittite pantheon, and as one of its members appears in texts from Hattusa, presumed to reflect the traditions of Kizzuwatna. A depiction of him has been identified among the gods from the Yazılıkaya sanctuary. In the first millennium BCE he continued to be worshiped in Taite, and as one of its deities he is attested in the Assyrian Tākultu rituals. He is also attested in Luwian inscriptions from sites such as Carchemish and Tell Ahmar.
Multiple myths focused on Kumarbi are known. Many of them belong to the so-called Kumarbi Cycle, which describes the struggle for kingship among the gods between him and Teshub. The texts usually agreed to belong to it include the Song of Kumarbi, the Song of LAMMA, the Song of Silver, the Song of Ḫedammu and the Song of Ullikummi. Kumarbi is portrayed in them as a scheming deity who raises various challengers to depose or destroy Teshub. His plans are typically successful in the short term, but ultimately the adversaries he creates are defeated by the protagonists. Further texts argued to also be a part of the cycle include the Song of the Sea, the Song of Oil, and other fragmentary narratives. Kumarbi also appears in an adaptation of Atrahsasis, where he plays the role which originally belonged to Enlil. Myths focused on him are often compared to other narratives known from the tradition of other neighboring cultures, such as Mesopotamian Theogony of Dunnu or Ugaritic Baal Cycle. It is also commonly assumed that they were an influence on Theogony, especially on the succession of divine rulers and on the character of Kronos. Further works argued to show similar influences include the Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos and various Orphic theogonies, such as that known from the Derveni papyrus.
Name
In standard syllabic cuneiform, the theonym Kumarbi was written as dKu-mar-bi. A byform, Kumurwe, is attested in sources from Nuzi. In Ugaritic texts written in the local alphabetic cuneiform script it was rendered as kmrb or kmrw, vocalized respectively as Kumarbi and Kumarwi. A late variant, Kumarma, appears in hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions, where it is rendered with the signs BONUS, “the good god”. The correct reading has been determined based on a syllabic spelling identified in an inscription from Tell Ahmar, ku-mara/i+ra/i-ma-sa5.Kumarbi’s name has Hurrian origin and can be translated as “he of Kumar”. While no such a toponym is attested in any Hurrian sources, notes it shows similarities to Hurrian names from the third millennium BCE and on this basis proposes that it might refer to a settlement which existed in the early period of Hurrian history, poorly documented in textual sources. He suggests that its name in turn goes back to the Hurrian root kum, “to pile up”. Examples of other analogously structured Hurrian theonyms include Nabarbi and possibly Ḫiriḫibi. While it has been argued that Aštabi is a further example, his name was originally spelled as Aštabil in Ebla and as such cannot be considered another structurally Kumarbi-like theonym.
Logographic writings
According to Alfonso Archi, in a number of Hurrian texts Kumarbi’s name is represented by the sumerogram dNISABA. It was also used to refer to Dagan. Archi assumes both of these scribal conventions had the same origin. In Ugaritic and related dialects Dagan’s name was a homophone of the word for grain, with both written as dgn in Ugaritic alphabetic texts, and the logographic writing of both his name and that of Kumarbi as dNISABA was likely an example of wordplay popular among scribes, which in this case relied on the close association between these two gods and on the fact that Nisaba’s name could function as a metonym for grain. Lluís Feliu based on the attestations of this writing from Anatolia instead suggests that it reflected a connection to the Hittite grain deity Ḫalki, who similarly could be represented by the same sumerogram. One Anatolian example of the use of dNISABA to designate Kumarbi has been identified in an offering list dealing with the deities worshiped in the Hittite city of. Despite the different character of the two deities, there is also evidence for the use of Ḫalki’s name as a logogram to refer to Kumarbi.Character
Hurrian texts refer to Kumarbi as the “father of gods”. Volkert Haas has interpreted this as an indication that he was regarded as a creator deity. His position in the Hurrian pantheon was high, as reflected by his epithet ewri, “lord”. In myths he was portrayed as an old deposed king of the gods, replaced by his son Teshub, though this is presumed to be a fictional etiological narrative explaining the structure of the Hurrian pantheon, rather than reflection of a loss of importance at the expense of another deity. It has nonetheless been argued that the relation between them might have originally developed as a way to harmonize two originally distinct local pantheons.It is often assumed that Kumarbi was associated with grain. However, Lluís Feliu points out that the direct evidence for his supposed agrarian character is presently limited to the fact that the sumerogram dNISABA was sometimes employed to write his name, and the identification of a plant he holds on the Yazılıkaya relief as an ear of grain. Feliu’s criticism of this characterization is supported by Alfonso Archi, who points out the ear symbol is not used elsewhere, and might only represent a play on words referencing the scribal convention of using the name of dissimilar Hittite deity Ḫalki as a logogram designating Kumarbi. Feliu points out many arguments in favor of interpreting Kumarbi as an agricultural god are based on circular reasoning, specifically on the assumption that if Dagan, closely associated with him, had agricultural character, so did he. However, Dagan was regarded as a god of broadly understood prosperity, rather than specifically agriculture. Kumarbi himself was invoked in association with prosperity in hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from the first millennium BCE.
The underworld could be regarded as Kumarbi’s abode, as indicated for example by an incantation according to which water from a spring located under his throne “reaches the head of the Sun goddess of the Earth”, though he was not an underworld god in the strict sense.
A single Hittite text, KUB 59.66, mentions a “star of Kumarbi”, which Volkert Haas proposed identifying with the planet Saturn.
Associations with other deities
Family and court
It is assumed that Kumarbi’s father was Alalu. A direct statement confirming this relation has been identified in the text KUB 33.120. It is typically translated as “Kumarbi, the descendant of Alalu”. A further piece of evidence supporting the view are sections of treaties enumerating gods invoked as their divine witnesses, in which they could be listed in sequence. Both of them appear for example in the treaty between Hittite king Muwatalli II and Alaksandu of Wilusa. The myth establishing the relation between them, the Song of Kumarbi, seemingly involves two “dynasties” of deities competing for kingship. This assumption is nonetheless not universally accepted. An alternate interpretation is to see Alalu as the father of Anu, who reigned between Alalu and Kumarbi as the king of the gods, and grandfather of Kumarbi. However, Christian Zgoll, who supports this theory, admits that it is difficult to prove. He nonetheless questions the notion of two separate dynasties, and argues that no other examples of a theogonic myth involving two divine families is known. However, according to Wilfred G. Lambert succession involving master and servant rather than members of one family is not entirely unknown, and in addition to the account of Kumarbi’s overthrow of Anuy another example might be a section from the Theogony of Dunnu focused on a nameless figure seemingly labeled as a servant rather than child of the god he deposes.Shalash could be viewed as the spouse of Kumarbi. She was originally associated with Dagan, as already attested in texts from Ebla, and the link between her and Kumarbi was a later development. However, the evidence associating Shalash with Kumarbi is also used as an argument in favor of continuity of her association with Dagan. In the Hurrian column of a multilingual edition of the Weidner god list from Ugarit, a goddess named Ašte Kumurbineve, literally “wife of Kumarbi”, appears instead. However, according to Aaron Tugendhaft she is one of the deities attested in it who would be considered “pure scholarly inventions” meant to mimic Mesopotamian pairs of major gods and their wives with etymologically related names, such as Anu and Antu. In myths Kumarbi appears without a wife.
Teshub was regarded as a son of Kumarbi, conceived after he bit off and swallowed the genitals of Anu. Gary Beckman states that the weather god can thus be considered a descendant of both of the lines of gods present in the Song of Kumarbi. Due to the circumstances of the weather god’s conception, a Hurrian hymn refers to Kumarbi as his mother:
Noga Ayali-Darshan notes the relationship between Kumarbi and Teshub was portrayed as “dysfunctional” in Hurrian mythology. The other children of Kumarbi conceived the same way were Tašmišu and the river Tigris, known by the Hurrians under the name Aranzaḫ or Aranziḫ. While Šauška was regarded as a sister of both Teshub and Tašmišu, she is not mentioned among Kumarbi’s children in the Song of Kumarbi, though according to Marie-Claude Trémouille this might simply be the result of its incomplete state of preservation. She therefore argues it can nonetheless be assumed this deity was also one of the children of Kumarbi and Anu. However, according to Gary Beckman’s recent treatment of Song of Kumarbi, the text explicitly states that the eponymous god was impregnated with only three deities.
In myths dealing with his conflict with Teshub, Kumarbi is also the father of various opponents of the weather god, such as Ullikummi, Ḫedammu and Silver. Ḫedammu’s mother was, a daughter of the deified sea. Silver was born to a mortal woman. Ullikummi was the product of Kumarbi’s “sexual union with a huge cliff” according to Harry Hoffner, though Daniel Schwemer instead assumes that the passage describing his conception alludes to a goddess related to stones. The former two of these three children of Kumarbi appear together in a ritual text which states that he planned for both of them to become the king of the gods. The text places the so-called “divine determinative” before the name of Ḫedammu, but not Silver. Both of them are also described with the terms šarra, used to refer to mythical, deified rulers and ewri, which designated non-supernatural kings.
Like all other major Hurrian gods, Kumarbi was believed to be served by a divine “vizier”,. His name was derived from the toponym Mukiš. A single text from Ugarit instead describes Šarruma as the deity playing this role, but he is better attested in association with Ḫepat and Teshub. In myths belonging to the Kumarbi is also aided by the deified sea, who acts as his counsellor. In Song of Ḫašarri, a reference is made to a group of wandering deities referred to as the "Seven Eyes of Kumarbi", possibly analogous to Ḫutellurra. The circle of deities associated with him additionally included the so-called “former gods”, referred to as ammadena enna in Hurrian and karuilieš šiuneš in Hittite. They were portrayed as his helpers in myths. However, the same group of deities could also be affiliated with Allani.