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Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, Ullikummi is a giant stone monster, son of

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 ...

and the sea god's daughter, Sertapsuruhi, or a female cliff. The language of the literary myth in its existing redaction is Hittite, in cuneiform texts recovered at Bogaskoy, where some Hurrian fragments of the ''Song of Ullikummi'' have been found. ''See'' Guterbock (1951). The ''Song of Ullikummi'' was recognized from its first rediscovery as a predecessor of

Greek myth Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancien ...

s in

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

. Parallels to the Greek myth of

Typhon Typhon (; , ), also Typhoeus (; ), Typhaon () or Typhos (), was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However, one source has Typhon as t ...

, the ancient antagonist of the thunder-god

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

, have been elucidated by Burkert. The ''Song'' possesses information on the Hittite creation myth, including the idea that there was a

separation of heaven and earth The separation of heaven and earth is a major event in the creation of the cosmos found in many creation myths across the world, from Egypt to New Zealand. This event functions as a necessary precondition for the rest of the creation event, as befor ...

in the primordial past, before which, the two were united.

The story of Ullikummi

The narrative of Ullikummi is one episode, the best preserved and most complete, in an epic cycle of related "songs" about the god Kumarbi, who aimed to replace the weather god

Teshub Teshub was the Hurrians, Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian language, Hurrian. Both Phonetics, phonetic and L ...

and destroy the city of Kummiya; to this end Kumarbi fathered upon a rock cliff a genderless, deaf, blind, yet sentient volcanic rock monster, Ullikummi, which he hid in the netherworld and placed on the shoulder of

Upelluri Upelluri or Ubelluri was a primordial giant in Hurrian mythology. He is only known from the ''Song of Ullikummi'', which is one of the few Hurrian texts offering a view of this culture's cosmology. It was believed that Upelluri was already aliv ...

. Upelluri, absorbed in his meditations, did not feel Ullikummi on his shoulder.Upelluri stands in the netherworld, holding the earth and sky on his shoulder like the Greek Atlas; a mere giant such as Ullikummi is barely noticeable, although Upelluri does feel a bit of pain in his shoulder once Ullikummi has grown up. Ullikummi grew quickly until he reached the heavens. Ullikummi's brother

thundered and rained on Ullikummi, but it did not harm him. Teshub fled and abdicated the throne.The weather god and his vizier and brother, Tasmisu, are defeated in their first battle with Ullikummi, as Tasmisu relates to Teshub's wife, Hebat; as a result Teshub is banished to a "little place," probably meaning a grave. Teshub asked Ea for help.Ea, who lives in the Apsu, underground source of earth's waters, obtains the toothed cutting tool with which heaven and earth were cut apart shortly after creation; this tool will disable Ullikummi. Ea visited Upelluri and cut off the feet of Ullikummi, toppling him That is, Ea cuts Ullikummi loose from Upelluri's shoulder and then urges the weather god to fight again; the end of the story is broken away and scholars simply assume Ullikummi is finally defeated.Haas, Volkert (2006) pp 130-176.

Notes

References

Sources

* Burkert, Walter. (1979). "Von Ullikummi zum Kaukasus: Die Felsgeburt des Unholds", ''Würzburger Jahrbücher'' N.F., 5, pp 253–261. * Burkert, Walter. ''Oriental and Greek Mythology'', pp. 19–24. * Guterbock, Hans Gustav (1951–1952). "The Song of Ullikummi: Revised Text of the Hittite Version of a Hurrian Myth" ''Journal of Cuneiform Studies'' 5 (4), pp 135–161, (1951); 6 (1), pp 8–42, (1952) and in succeeding issues. * Haas, Volkert. (2006). Die hethitische Literatur: Texte, Stilistik, Motive. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp 130–176. * Hoffner, H. A. Jr. (1990). "The Song of Hedammu". ''Hittite Myths'', pp 48–57. Atlanta.

External links

* {{Portal, Mythology, Asia Hurrian legendary creatures