Mythology

anger, malice, and fury! Let them not come back! [7] The text ends with the return of Telepinus to his house and the restoration of prosperity. Telepinus cares for the king and the queen and provides them with enduring life and vigour. An interesting feature of the conclusion of the ritual is the erection of a pole before the god, from which the fleece of a sheep is suspended. The closing lines of the text explain that the pole with its suspended fleece signifies fat of the sheep, grains of corn, wine, cattle, sheep, long life, and many children. A parallel to the pole erected before Telepinus may be seen in the pole decorated with foliage often depicted in Assyrian and Babylonian seals with attendant figures on, each side of it engaged in some kind of ritual act. The raising of the ded tree in the Osiris ritual may also be mentioned in this connexion. These are the principal Hittite myths. Other fragmentary myths have been found of which Dr Gurney has given an account in his excellent Pelican book The Hittites, but those here related will give sufficient illustration of the character of Hittite mythology. They show clear dependence upon Babylonian mythology, and also show how much of Greek and Western mythology and folklore has its roots in this curious Hittite material. —- 1. 2 Kings 6 :6. 2. Ezek. 16:3,45. 3. Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Relating to the Old Testament, pp. 124-5. 4. Dan. 2:34. 5. See p. 44. 6. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. 127. 7. Ibid., p. 128. ———————————– Hebrew Mythology Chapter 5 In dealing with the literature of Israel we are on much firmer footing than we have been in the case of much of the ancient material with which we have hitherto been concerned. The Sumerian language still presents many difficult problems for the translator, and the unpointed text of the Ugaritic tablets, as well as their mutilated condition, present formidable barriers to the full understanding of the myths and legends which they contain. But the literature of Israel, covering a period of nearly a thousand years, has come down to us in a state of remarkable preservation; so that the meaning of the text itself is, in the main, free from serious difficulties of translation. That the Old Testament contains an abundance of mythological material is undeniable, and it presents problems which do not arise in connexion with the mythologies of the nations by whom Israel was surrounded. Underlying the sagas of the book of Genesis it is possible to trace the tradition of the two earliest movements of peoples into Canaan which form the beginning of the history of Israel.

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