The ''Story of Appu'' is a mythological
Hittite text (CTH 360). The text is fragmentary, and the sequence of events in the story is a reconstruction.
The text is usually taken as an account of a
Hurrian myth, but it does not itself contain any Hurrian names or other vocabulary to support this judgement. The geographical setting is in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
.
The reconstructed argument of the text is as follows:
Appu is a rich man, but he is unhappy because he has no son.
The text hints at the possibility that Appu doesn't know anything about
sex. He sacrifices a
lamb to ask the help of the gods. The
sun-god
A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...
appears and advises him to get drunk and then have sex with his wife.
Eventually, Appu's wife gives birth to a first son, named () "bad, evil". At this point the text alludes to a rite of
name-giving, paralleled in the ''
Song of Ullikummi'', where the newborn is
set on the knee of the father.
Appu's wife later gives birth to a second son, named () "good, righteous".
When both sons have reached adult age, Idalu suggests that they divide the paternal estate among them.
He argues that, as each of the gods has
his own city, so should they also each have their own
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
. Idalu tricks his brother, taking most of the estate and leaving him only with a barren
cow. But the sun-god blesses the cow and restores her
fertility
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Ferti ...
. At this point the first tablet ends and the rest of the story is very fragmentary.
It appears to deal with litigation between the brothers; Idalu seems to take Handanza to court before the sun-god at Sippar. When the god rules in favour of Handanza, Idalu curses, and the sun-god refuses to conclude the case, sending the brothers to
Ishtar
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...
at
Nineveh
Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ba ...
to conclude the case.
[Gwendolyn Leick, ''A dictionary of ancient Near Eastern mythology'' (1991).]
References
*Geoffrey William Bromiley, ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'', vol. 4, {{ISBN, 978-0-8028-3785-1, 1995, p. 82.
Hittite texts
Hurrian mythology
Works set in Mesopotamia