Mythology

This myth deals with. the same theme as the myth of Tammuz in the underworld, and the disappearance of Baal in the Ugaritic myth. The disappearance of the god produces a failure of every kind of fertility, both of vegetation and of cattle. The myth appears to have been current in several forms, and more than one god, including the sun-god, disappears, but the main text, upon which the account here given is based, has the god Telepinus as its hero. This myth also may be classed among the ritual myths, since it includes the ritual for securing the return of the vanished god. The beginning of the text is broken so we do not know the causes of the gods anger. The thread of the story is taken up at the point where the rage of Telepinus is described. He is depicted as putting his left shoe on his right foot and his right shoe on his left foot, implying that he was so angry that he did not know what he was doing. Telepinus goes away into the steppe and is lost. He is overcome with fatigue and falls asleep. Then we have a description of the effects of his absence: a mist covers the country; in the fire-place the logs are stifled; at the altars the gods are stifled; the sheep neglects its lamb, and the cow neglects its calf; there is drought and famine so that men and gods perish from hunger. The storm-god becomes anxious about his son Telepinus, and the search begins. The sun-god sends out the swift eagle with orders to search every mountain and valley, but the eagle returns unsuccessful. Then the goddess Hannahannas urges the storm-god to do something about it. He goes to the house of Telepinus and batters at the gate. He only succeeds in breaking his hammer, but does not find the missing god, and retires from the quest. Then Hannahannas suggests sending out the Bee in search, but the storm-god mocks at the idea and says that the Bee is too small to succeed in an enterprise in which the great gods have failed. Hannahannas, however, sends out the Bee with orders to sting Telepinus on his hands and feet, to smear wax on his eyes and feet, and purify him and bring him back to the gods. The Bee finds him after a long search and carries out the orders of the goddess. Telepinus is aroused from his sleep, but is more enraged than ever, and the gods are at a loss. Then the sun-god says, ‘Fetch man! let him take the spring Hattara on Mount Ammuna. Let him make him move! With the eagle’s wing let him make him move!’ [6] Some kind of ritual seems to be implied here, but the meaning is obscure. After a break in the text, in which the goddess Kamrusepas, the goddess of healing, seems to have been summoned, her ritual of purification is described. Telepinus returns, borne on the eagle’s wing and accompanied by thunder and lightning. Kamruspas calms him and soothes his rage. She orders a sacrifice of twelve rams. Torches are kindled and extinguished, symbolizing the extinction of the god’s fury. A spell is then pronounced, apparently by the man mentioned previously, intended to banish all the evils of the rage of Telepinus into the underworld. The concluding words of the spell run, ‘The doorkeeper has opened the seven doors, has unlocked the seven bolts. Down in the dark earth there stand bronze cauldrons, their lids are of abaru metal, their handles of iron. Whatever goes in there comes not out again; it perishes therein. Let them also receive Telepinus’s rage,

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