Elkunirša

Elkunirša's myth was discovered only in Hittite, but scholars are certain its origin is Canaanite. The Canaanite origin is learned by the names of the deities in the myth. Elkunirša is a Hittite version of {{Interlanguage link|El qône ereṣ|he|אל קונה ארץ}}, known from ʾAzatiwada inscrioption, {{Bibleverse|Genesis|14:19}} and other Canaanite and Aramaic instances.{{Cite journal |last=Weippert |first=Manfred |date=1969 |title=Elemente phönikischer und kilikischer Religion in den Inschriften vom Karatepe |url=https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/113237 |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: Supplement I |volume= |pages=203–204}} Ašertu is ʾAšerah. Two other divine names appear in ideograms, one – ^DU – belongs to the weather god, here identified as Baʿal, and the other – ^DIŠTAR – is identified here as ʿAnat or ʿAštart. The myth also bears Canaanite stylistic features. There is also a reference to the land Amurru and a-na-[...] (probably Ḫana or ʿAnat (city)).{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |author-link=Itamar Singer |title=The Hittite and their Civilization |publisher=Bialik Institute |year=2009 |page= |pages=241–243 |language=he}}{{Cite book |last=Hoffner |first=Harry A. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nz806014s |title=Hittite myths |date=1998 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn= |pages=90 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Laroche |first=Emmanuel |date=1968 |title=Textes mythologiques hittites en transcription, 2e partie : Mythologie d’origine étrangère |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhita_0080-2603_1968_num_26_82_1214 |journal=Revue Hittite et Asianique |volume=26 |issue=82 |pages=139–141 |doi=10.3406/rhita.1968.1214}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |title=The Literature of the Hebrew Bible: Introduction and Studies |publisher=Yad Ben-Zvi Press |year=2011 |editor-last=Talshir |editor-first=Zipora |volume=2 |pages=601 |language=he |chapter=Hittite Literature}}

The text was unearthed in several fragments, probably all belonging to one tablet, and their order was restored by scholars.{{Cite book |last=Hoffner |first=Harry A. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nz806014s |title=Hittite myths |date=1998 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn= |pages=90 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Laroche |first=Emmanuel |date=1968 |title=Textes mythologiques hittites en transcription, 2e partie : Mythologie d’origine étrangère |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhita_0080-2603_1968_num_26_82_1214 |journal=Revue Hittite et Asianique |volume=26 |issue=82 |pages=139 |doi=10.3406/rhita.1968.1214}}{{Cite journal |last=Hoffner |first=Harry |date=1965 |title=The Elkunirsa Myth Reconsidered |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhita_0080-2603_1965_num_23_76_1194 |journal=Revue Hittite et Asianique |volume=23 |issue=76 |pages=6 |doi=10.3406/rhita.1965.1194}}

The surviving part of the myth opens with a figure delivering Ašertu's threatens to Baʿal, that if he doesn't sleep with her, she will hurt him. Baʿal goes to the source of the Euphrates, to Elkunirša's tent. Elkunirša asks him why he came, and he reported him that Ašertu, his wife, sent young women who delivered him her proposition to sleep with him, that he declined her, and that she threatened him. Elkunirša replied: "Go threaten(?) her [...] and humble her". Baʿal went to Ašertu and told her: "I have killed your seventy-seven [children]. (Your) eighty-eight I have killed." Ašertu became sad, appointed mourning women, and lamented for seven years. Then, fragmented, mentioned "ate and drank" (maybe a part of a wake feast), and then, a missing part whose length is undetermined.{{Cite book |last=Hoffner |first=Harry A. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nz806014s |title=Hittite myths |date=1998 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn= |pages=90–91 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |author-link=Itamar Singer |title=The Hittite and their Civilization |publisher=Bialik Institute |year=2009 |page= |pages=242 |language=he}}

After the missing part, the threats towards Baʿal are repeated, now in third-person – Ašertu described to Elkunirša what she intends to do to Baʿal, and then she says she will sleep with him (with Elkunirša). Elkunirša tells her to do as she wishes. Then, it is said that ʿAnat/ʿAštart heard the conversation, she "became a cup in Elkunirša's hand, became an owl and perched on his wall (or shoulder{{Cite journal |last=Hoffner |first=Harry |date=1965 |title=The Elkunirsa Myth Reconsidered |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhita_0080-2603_1965_num_23_76_1194 |journal=Revue Hittite et Asianique |volume=23 |issue=76 |pages=13 |doi=10.3406/rhita.1965.1194}})." it is possible that the Hittite translator confused the two meanings of the West Semitic word kôs: a cup and a species of owls. Elkunirša and his wife went to sleep together, and ʿAnat/ʿAštart flew like a bird over the desert, and warned Baʿal not to drink wine with Ašertu. The tablet is damaged here again, but it can be learned from the damaged part that Baʿal is found in the underworld and ʿAnat/ʿAštart with the underworld deities try to cure Baʿal's wounds, probably resulted by Ašertu who succeeded in her plot.{{Cite book |last=Hoffner |first=Harry A. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nz806014s |title=Hittite myths |date=1998 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn= |pages=90–91 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |author-link=Itamar Singer |title=The Hittite and their Civilization |publisher=Bialik Institute |year=2009 |page= |pages=242 |language=he}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |title=The Literature of the Hebrew Bible: Introduction and Studies |publisher=Yad Ben-Zvi Press |year=2011 |editor-last=Talshir |editor-first=Zipora |volume=2 |pages=602 |language=he |chapter=Hittite Literature}}

After another missing part of the text, it seems Baʿal undergoes an exorcism, in which exorcists from Amurru and Ḫana or ʿAnat (city) take part. The text is too damaged to understand the nature of the ritual. The rest of the myth did not survive.{{Cite book |last=Hoffner |first=Harry A. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nz806014s |title=Hittite myths |date=1998 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn= |pages=92 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |author-link=Itamar Singer |title=The Hittite and their Civilization |publisher=Bialik Institute |year=2009 |page= |pages=242–243 |language=he}}

The plot of the myth finds parallels in the plot of the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers and the biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife.{{Cite book |last=ורגוטה |first=יוסף |title=עולם התנ"ך: בראשית |publisher=רביבים |year=2002 |pages=216–217 |language=he |chapter=פרק לט – מבוא}}{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Itamar |title=The Literature of the Hebrew Bible: Introduction and Studies |publisher=Yad Ben-Zvi Press |year=2011 |editor-last=Talshir |editor-first=Zipora |volume=2 |pages=601 |language=he |chapter=Hittite Literature}}

The god ^Dku-ni-ir-ša, variant of Elkunirša, is mentioned in a damaged context in a Hittite ritual text.{{Cite journal |last=Weippert |first=Manfred |date=1969 |title=Elemente phönikischer und kilikischer Religion in den Inschriften vom Karatepe |url=https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/113237 |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: Supplement I |volume= |pages=203}}{{Abbr|CTH|Catalogue des Textes Hittites}} 342.1.3, see [https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/txhet_myth/exemplar.php?xst=CTH%20342.1.3 the Hittite source] and ו[https://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/anatol/hittite/cthtr/cthtr.htm?cthtr109.htm a German translation]{{Cite journal |last=Hoffner |first=Harry |date=1965 |title=The Elkunirsa Myth Reconsidered |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhita_0080-2603_1965_num_23_76_1194 |journal=Revue Hittite et Asianique |volume=23 |issue=76 |pages=5 |doi=10.3406/rhita.1965.1194}}

{{Reflist}}

Category:El (deity)

Category:Hittite deities

Category:Canaanite religion