Haruspex
In the religion of Ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. The reading of omens from the liver is known by the Greek term hepatoscopy; the Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the disciplina Etrusca. Such methods continued to be used well into the Middle Ages among Christian apostates and pagans, with Thomas Becket consulting both an aruspex and a chiromancer prior to a royal expedition against Brittany; the Latin terms haruspex, haruspicina are from an archaic word haru "entrails, intestines" and from the root spec- "to watch, observe". The Greek ἡπατοσκοπία hēpatoskōpia is from hēpar "liver" and skop- "to examine"; the Babylonians were famous for hepatoscopy. This practice is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel 21:21: "For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination.
The Nineveh library texts name more than a dozen liver-related terms. The liver was considered hence the basis of life itself. From this belief, the Babylonians thought they could discover the will of the gods by examining the livers of selected sheep. A priest known as a bārû was specially trained to interpret the "signs" of the liver, Babylonian scholars assembled a monumental compendium of omens called the Bārûtu; the liver was divided with each section representing a particular deity. One Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver, dated between 1900 and 1600 BC, is conserved in the British Museum; the model was used for divination, important to Mesopotamian medicine. This practice was conducted by priests and seers who looked for signs in the stars, or in the organs of sacrificed animals, to tell them things about a patient’s illness. Wooden pegs were placed in the holes of the clay tablet to record features found in a sacrificed animal's liver; the seer used these features to predict the course of a patient's illness.
Haruspicy was part of a larger study of organs for the sake of divination, called extispicy, paying particular attention to the positioning of the organs and their shape. There are many records of different peoples using the liver and spleen of various domestic and wild animals to forecast weather. There are hundreds of ancient architectural objects, labyrinths composed of cobblestones in the northern countries that are considered to be a model of the intestines of the sacrificial animal, i.e. the colon of ruminants. The Assyro-Babylonian tradition was adopted in Hittite religion. At least thirty-six liver-models have been excavated at Hattusa. Of these, the majority are inscribed in Akkadian, but a few examples have inscriptions in the native Hittite language, indicating the adoption of haruspicy as part of the native, vernacular cult; the Etruscans were well known for the practice of divining by the entrails of sheep. A bronze sculpture of a liver known as the "Liver of Piacenza", dating to around 100 BC, was discovered in 1877 near the town of Piacenza in northern Italy.
It is marked with the name of regions assigned to various deities of Etruscan religion. The striking parallel not just of the prevalence of the practice of haruspicy, but the specific artifact type of liver models recording the significance of the various parts of the liver has given rise to the hypothesis of a strong cultural connection between Etruria and the Ancient Near East. From as early as 1900, Ludwig Stieda sought to compare the Etruscan with the Babylonian artifacts; the parallel is taken as one of the main pieces of evidence by those arguing for Etruscan origins in Anatolia, alongside Herodotus' claim that the "Tyrrhenians" descended from the Lydians, the linguistic relationship between Etruscan and Lemnian. The art of haruspicy was taught in the Libri Tagetici, a collection of texts attributed to Tages, a childlike being who figures in Etruscan mythology, and, discovered in an open field by Tarchon; the continuity of the Etruscan tradition among the Romans is indicated by several ancient literary sources most famously in the incident related by Suetonius in which a haruspex named Spurinna warned Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March.
The emperor Claudius was a student of the Etruscan language and antiquities, opened a college to preserve and improve their art, which lasted until the reign of Theodosius I, the Christian emperor who dismantled the last active vestiges of the traditional state cult. Further evidence has been found of haruspices in Bath, England where the base of a statue was dedicated by a haruspex named Memor. Anthropomancy Augur Auspice Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Haruspices". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 37–38. This source suggests that Roman haruspices used the entrails of human corpses. Haruspices, article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities Figurine of Haruspex, 4th Cent. B. C. Vatican Museums Online, Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Room III l. Starr. "Chapters 1 and 2 of the bārûtu". State Archives of Assyria Bulletin. 6: 45–53
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths told by the ancient Greeks. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities and mythological creatures, the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself; the Greek myths were propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most by Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.
Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase-paintings and the decoration of votive gifts and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic and Hellenistic periods and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. Greek mythology is known today from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900 BC to c. 800 BC onward. In fact and archaeological sources integrate, sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes in conflict.
Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. The only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus; this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens wrote on many of these topics, his writings may have formed the basis for the collection. Among the earliest literary sources are the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these and lesser poems now are lost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the "Homeric Hymns" have no direct connection with Homer, they are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about farming life includes the myths of Prometheus and the Five Ages.
The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods. Lyrical poets took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar and Simonides, bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents. Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama; the tragic playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories took on their classic form in these tragedies; the comic playwright Aristophanes used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs. Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends giving little-known alternative versions. Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.
Herodotus attempted to reconcile the blending of differing cultural concepts. The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: The Roman poets Ovid, Valerius Flaccus and Virgil with Servius's commentary; the Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Parthenius. Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths includ
Ḫepat
Ḫebat transcribed, was the mother goddess of the Hurrians, known as "the mother of all living". She is a Queen of the deities. Hebat is married to Teshub and is the mother of Sarruma and Alanzu, as well mother-in-law of the daughter of the dragon Illuyanka, it is thought that Hebat may have had a Southern Mesopotamian origin, being the deification of Kubaba, the founder and first ruler of the Third Dynasty of Kish. The name may be transliterated in different versions - Khepat with the feminine ending -t is the Syrian and Ugaritic version. In the Hurrian language Ḫepa is the most pronunciation of the name of the goddess. In modern literature the sound /h/ in cuneiform sometimes is transliterated as kh; the Hittite sun goddess Arinniti was assimilated with Hebat. A prayer of Queen Puduhepa makes this explicit: "To the Sun-goddess of Arinna, my lady, the mistress of the Hatti lands, the queen of Heaven and Earth. Sun-goddess of Arinna, thou art Queen of all countries! In the Hatti country thou bearest the name of the Sun-goddess of Arinna.
Ḫepat was venerated all over the ancient Near East. Her name appears in many theophoric personal names. A king of Jerusalem mentioned in the Amarna letters was named Abdi-Heba meaning "Servant of Ḫepat"; the mother goddess is to have had a counterpart in the Phrygian goddess Cybele. Hurrian mythology Kubaba Hittite/Hurrian Mythology
Kubaba
Kubaba is the only queen on the Sumerian King List, which states she reigned for 100 years – in the Early Dynastic III period of Sumerian history. In times, she was worshipped as a goddess. Kubaba is one of few women to have ruled in their own right in Mesopotamian history. Most versions of the king list place her alone in her own dynasty, the 3rd Dynasty of Kish, following the defeat of Sharrumiter of Mari, but other versions combine her with the 4th dynasty, that followed the primacy of the king of Akshak. Before becoming monarch, the king list says; the Weidner Chronicle is a propagandistic letter, attempting to date the shrine of Marduk at Babylon to an early period, purporting to show that each of the kings who had neglected its proper rites had lost the primacy of Sumer. It contains a brief account of rise of "the house of Kubaba" occurring in the reign of Puzur-Nirah of Akshak: "In the reign of Puzur-Nirah, king of Akšak, the freshwater fishermen of Esagila were catching fish for the meal of the great lord Marduk.
The fisherman was fishing when 7 days had passed in the house of Kubaba, the tavern-keeper they brought to Esagila. At that time BROKEN anew for Esagila Kubaba gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila. Marduk, the king, the prince of the Apsû, favored her and said: "Let it be so!" He entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world." Her son Puzur-Suen and grandson Ur-Zababa followed her on the throne in Sumer as the fourth Kish dynasty on the king list, in some copies as her direct successors, in others with the Akshak dynasty intervening. Ur-Zababa is known as the king said to be reigning in Sumer during the youth of Sargon the Great of Akkad, who militarily brought much of the Near East under his regime shortly afterward. Shrines in honour of Kubaba spread throughout Mesopotamia. In the Hurrian area, she may be identified with Kebat, or Hepat, one title of the Hurrian Mother goddess Hannahannah. Abdi-Heba was the palace mayor.
Kubaba became the tutelary goddess who protected the ancient city of Carchemish on the upper Euphrates, in the late Hurrian/early Hittite period. Relief carvings, now at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, show her seated, wearing a cylindrical headdress like the polos and holding a tympanum or a mirror in one hand and a poppy capsule in the other, she plays a role in Luwian texts and a minor role in Hittite texts in Hurrian rituals. According to Emanuel Laroche, Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mark Munn, her cult spread and her name was adapted for the main goddess of the Hittite successor kingdoms in Anatolia; this deity developed into the Phrygian matar kubileya, depicted in petroglyphs and mentioned in accompanying inscriptions. The Phrygian goddess otherwise bears little resemblance to Kubaba, who – according to Herodotus – was a sovereign deity at Sardis, her Lydian name was Kuvav or Kufav which Ionian Greeks transcribed Kybêbê, rather than Kybele. Bremmer observes that in the following century she was further Hellenized by Hipponax, as "Kybêbê, daughter of Zeus".
"The Weidner'Chronicle' mentioning Kubaba". From Grayson, A. K.. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Munn, Mark. "Kybele as Kubaba in a Lydo-Phrygian Context": Emory University cross-cultural conference "Hittites and Their Neighbors in Central Anatolia" Laroche Emmanuel, "Kubaba déesse anatolienne, et le problème des origines de Cybèle", Eléments orientaux dans la religion grecque ancienne, Paris 1960, p. 113-128. Vermaseren, Maarten J. Cybele and Attis. M. H. Lemmers, Trans. Thames and Hudson, London. Queen Ku-Baba, the first female monarch in history, the destruction of her legacy by Sargon
Hurrian language
Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by the Hurrians, a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and was spoken at least in Hurrian settlements in modern-day Syria, it is believed that the speakers of this language came from the Armenian Highlands and spread over southeast Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Hurrian is an ergative, agglutinative language that, together with Urartian, constitutes the Hurro-Urartian family. I. M. Diakonoff and S. Starostin see similarities between Hurrian and the Northeast Caucasian languages, thus place it in a hypothetical Alarodian family. Examples of the proposed phonological correspondences are Proto-East-Caucasian *l- > Hurrian t-, Proto-East-Caucasian *-dl- > Hurrian -r-. Other scholars, doubt that the language families are related, or believe that, while a connection is possible, there is not enough evidence at this time to be certain.
Some scholars, such as I. J. Gelb and E. A. Speiser, tried to equate Hurrians and "Subarians"; the earliest Hurrian text fragments consist of lists of names and places from the end of the third millennium BC. The first full texts date to the reign of king Tish-atal of Urkesh and were found on a stone tablet accompanying the Hurrian foundation pegs known as the "Urkish lions." At the start of the second milliennium BC. Archeologists have discovered the texts of numerous spells, incantations and letters at sites including Hattusha, Tuttul, Babylon and others. Early study of the language, was based on the Mitanni letter, found in 1887 at Amarna in Egypt, written by the Hurrian king Tushratta to the pharaoh Amenhotep III; the Hurro-Urartian relation was recognized as early as 1890 by Jensen. In the thirteenth century BC, invasions from the west by the Hittites and the south by the Assyrians brought the end of the Mitanni empire, divided between the two conquering powers. In the following century, attacks by the Sea Peoples brought a swift end to the last vestiges of the Hurrian language.
It is around this time that other languages, such as the Hittite language and the Ugaritic language became extinct, in what is known as the Bronze Age collapse. In the texts of these languages, as well as those of Akkadian or Urartian, many Hurrian names and places can be found. Renewed interest in Hurrian was triggered by texts discovered in Boğazköy in the 1910s and Ugarit in the 1930s. Speiser published the first comprehensive grammar of Hurrian. Since the 1980s, the Nuzi corpus from the archive of Silwa-tessup has been edited by G. Wilhelm. Since the late 1980s, significant progress was made due to the discovery of a Hurrian-Hittite bilingual, edited by E. Neu; the Hurrian of the Mitanni letter differs from that used in the texts at Hattusha and other Hittite centres, as well as from earlier Hurrian texts from various locations. The non-Mitanni letter varieties, while not homogeneous, are subsumed under the designation Old Hurrian. Whereas in Mitanni the vowel pairs i/e and u/o are differentiated, in the Hattusha dialect they have merged into i and u respectively.
There are differences in morphology, some of which are mentioned in the course of the exposition below. Nonetheless, it is clear. Another Hurrian dialect is represented in several texts from Ugarit, but they are so poorly preserved that little can be said about them, save that spelling patterns used elsewhere to represent Hurrian phonemes are ignored in them. There was a Hurrian-Akkadian creole, called Nuzi, spoken in the Mitanni provincial capital of Arrapha; as can be seen from the table, Hurrian did not possess a voiced-voiceless distinction. There vice versa. However, based on evidence from the cuneiform script, there seem to have been voiced allophones of consonants other than /ts/, which occurred in certain environments: between two voiced phonemes, also word-finally. Sometimes a voiced consonant is written in these situations, i.e. b, d, g, v or ž, rarely, ǧ. All / j / can be long or short; the long consonants occur only between vowels. In the cuneiform, as in the Latin transcription, geminated consonants are indicated by doubling the corresponding symbol, so...
VC-CV... Short consonants are written... V-CV... for example mānnatta is written ma-a-an-na-at-ta. Since /f/ was not found in the Sumerian cuneiform script, the Hurrians used the symbols representing /p/, /b/ or /w/. An / f / can be recognised in words. In cases where a word occurs only once, with a p, it cannot be known if it was meant to represent a /p/ or an /f/. In final syllables containing a, /f/ becomes diphthongised to /u/, e.g. tānōšau ) "I did". /s/ is traditionally transcribed by /š/, because the cuneiform script adapted the sign indicating /š/ for this phoneme. /ts/ is transcribed by z, /x/ by ḫ or h. In Hurrian, /r/ and /l/ do not occur at the beginning of a word. Vowels, just like consonants, can be either short. In the cuneiform script, this is indicated by placing an additional vowel symbol between the CV and VC syllables, giving CV-V-VC. Short vowels are indicated by a simple CV-VC pairing. In the Latin transcription, long vowels are indicated with a macron, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū. For /o/, absent in the Su
