[16] To the Sumerians, Mashu
was a sacred mountain. Its name means "twin" in Akkadian,
and thus was it portrayed on Babylonian cylinder seals --a twin-peaked
mountain, described by poets as both the seat of the gods, and
the underworld (60).
References or allusions to Mt.Mashu are found in three episodes
of the Gilgamesh cycle which date between the third and second
millennia B.C.
Mashu was located in a
forest in the "land of the Living", where the names
of the famous are written(61).
It is alluded to in the episode "Gilgamesh and Humbaba".
In this story, Gilgamesh and his friend, Enkidu, travel to the
Cedar (or Pine) Forest which is ruled over by a demonic monster
named Humbaba. While their motives for going to the Forest included
gaining renown, it is also clear that they wanted the timber it
contained. Humbaba, who had been appointed by the god Enlil to
guard the Forest, is depicted as a one-eyed giant with the powers
of a storm and breath of fire, perhaps the personification of
a volcano (62).
It is only with the help of another god, and a magically forged
weapon that Gilgamesh triumphs over Humbaba. But before his battle,
Gilgamesh and Enkidu gaze in awe at the mountain called "the
mountain of cedars, the dwelling-place of the gods and the throne
of Ishtar"(63).
They climb onto the mountain, sacrifice cereals to it, and, in
response, the mountain sends them puzzling dreams about their
futures (64).
When they begin to fell trees, Humbaba senses their presence and,
enraged, fixes his eye of death on the pair. [17] Although Gilgamesh
finally defeats the monster, Enkidu eventually weakens and dies
from Humbaba's gaze and curse (65).
In addition to its reputation as the "land of the Living",
this forest is also a way to the underworld or the other world.
For right after killing Humbaba, Gilgamesh continues in the forest
and "uncovered the sacred dwelling of the Anunaki"--old
gods who, like the Greek Titans, had been banished to the underworld (66).
Furthermore, Gilgamesh seems to go into a death-like trance here (67);
and in the same general region, the goddess Ishtar, whom Gilgamesh
spurned, threatened to break in the doors of hell and bring up
the dead to eat with the living (68).
Mashu is mentioned directly
in the episode "Gilgamesh and the Search for Everlasting
Life". This story unfolds after the death of Gilgamesh's
friend, Enkidu, a wrenching experience which makes Gilgamesh face
his own mortality and go searching for eternal life. It is en
route to Utnapishtim, the one mortal to achieve immortality,
that Gilgamesh comes to Mashu "the great mountain, which
guards the rising and setting sun. Its twin peaks are as high
as the wall of heaven and its roots reach down to the underworld.
At its gate the Scorpions stand guard, half man and half dragon;
their glory is terrifying; their stare strikes death into men,
their shining halo sweeps the mountains that guard the rising
sun"(69).
Gilgamesh is able to convince the Scorpion-people to open the
gate and let him enter the long tunnel through the mountains.
Eventually Gilgamesh emerges from the tunnel into a fantastic
Garden of the gods, whose trees bear glittering jewels instead
of fruit (70).
In the view of several
scholars, Mashu is also the mountain mentioned in the story that
Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh. [18] Utnapishtim, sometimes called the
"Sumerian Noah", told Gilgamesh how the gods had become
angered with humanity and decided on the Flood as one means to
exterminate it. A sympathetic god warned Utnapishtim and told
him to build a boat and board it with his family, relatives, craftsmen,
and the seed of all living creatures (71).
After six days of tempest and flood, Utnapishtim's boat grounded
on a mountain. He released a dove and a swallow, both of which
returned to him. Then he released a raven which did not return;
Utnapishtim and his family came down from the mountain. When the
disgruntled gods are finally reconciled with the re-emergence
of humanity, Utnapishtim and his wife are taken by the god Enlil
to live in the blessed place where Gilgamesh found him "in
the distance, at the mouth of the rivers"(72).
In his classic study, Armenia in the Bible, father Vahan Inglizian compared the above myths with the Biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2) and the Flood (Gen.7-8), both of which he sited in eastern Asia Minor (73). Accepting Lehmann-Haupt's equation of the tunnel through Mashu with the naturally occuring subterannean Tigris tunnel near Bylkalein, Inglizian suggested that Mashu should be sought in the Armenian Taurus mountain range, south of Lake Van (74). It is in this same southern area, rather than at Mt. Ararat, that many scholars, including Inglizian, place the mountain of Noah (Gen. 8.4)(75). Inglizian suggested that the phrase "at the mouth of the rivers" describing the blessed land where Utnapishtim lived, should be understood to mean "at the sources of the [Tigris and Euphrates] rivers"(76). This heavenly Dilmun of Mesopotamian mythology was later identified with Bahrain on the Persian Gulf (77).
Aratta, apparently, was
under the special protection of the Sun god's daughter, Inanna,
the goddess of love and war. In "Enmerkar and the Lord of
Aratta", the goddess and/or her statue were taken from Aratta
to the Sumerian city of Uruk by the ruler of Uruk, Enmerkar. Now
believing himself to have the goddess' protection, the Sumerian
king challenged the lord of Aratta. Enmerkar ordered him to send
to Sumer precious metals, precious stones, building materials
and the craftsmen to transform them into shrines (79).
The lord of Aratta is willing to provide the materials if Enmerkar
will send him large amounts of barley. When the barley arrives
in Aratta, its lord unexpectedly refuses to fulfill his part of
the agreement. After ten years, Enmerkar again sends his herald
to Aratta. This time, the lord of Aratta challenges Enmerkar to
select one of his champions to fight in single combat with one
of Aratta's champions. Enmerkar accepts. Because his response
was lengthy and his herald was "heavy of mouth", Enmerkar
inscribed his message on [20] clay tablets and sent them to Aratta
with his herald. The poet implies that this was the beginning
of writing (80).
However, at this point the famine, which apparently had been plaguing
Aratta, lifts and Aratta's ruler takes courage, believing Inanna
had not really abandoned him. Although the ending is fragmentary,
Aratta eventually seems to provide the materials and craftsmen.
In a second Sumerian myth,
"Enmerkar and Ensuhkeshdana", the lord of Aratta demands
the submission of Enmerkar, king of Uruk, and the return of the
goddess Inanna to her home in Aratta. Enmerkar refuses and demands
Aratta's submission. The lord of Aratta consults with his advisors
who urge him to capitulate, which he angrily refuses to do. Then
his priest comes forward and boasts that he will subdue Uruk and
other territories through magic. The lord of Aratta delightedly
rewards the priest and sends him to Uruk. But the priest is assassinated
there; and the lord of Aratta submits to Uruk (81).
Aratta is mentioned again in a third, briefer story known as "Lugulbanda and Enmerkar". In this myth, Enmerkar of Uruk is under military attack from the Martu people. Enmerkar desperately sends his messenger, Lugulbanda, to Aratta to the goddess Inanna, here called his sister. Inanna's response is unclear (82). However, it appears that Aratta again supplied Enmerkar with metals, precious stones, and craftsmen; and there is a suggestion that the materials were transported to Uruk by river (83). Finally, Aratta appears in a fourth myth, "Lugulbanda and Mount Hurum". Enmerkar and his army are traveling to Aratta to make it a vassal state. En route they stop at Mount Hurum where Lugulbanda becomes ill and "dies". His comrades place his body on Mount Hurum, [21] intending to retrieve it after their war in Aratta. However, Lugulbanda was not really dead. After praying to the sun, moon, and the star Venus, he emerges from his trance and wanders the highlands. Unfortunately, the ending of this story is lost (84).
The four myths outlined
above portray Aratta as a wealthy and militarily powerful state
with which Sumer had relations from very early times. It was located
some distance from Sumer and protected by its forbidding mountains,
but it was not so distant as to prevent trade relations. Aratta
had building materials, precious stones, metals and craftsmen
skilled in their transformation. Aratta also had primacy with
regard to the religion of the mother goddess, Inanna, who resided
in Aratta, was the patron of that state, and was taken or lured
south to Sumerian cities. Uruk and Aratta also were in contest
for military superiority--each demanding the submission of the
other. The method of transporting the "stones of the mountain"
from Aratta to Uruk and of transporting grain from Uruk to Aratta
seems consistent with such trade historically between the Armenian
highlands and areas to its south, namely, by boat from Aratta
south, and by pack animal from Uruk north. If Aratta is indeed
located in eastern Asia Minor, the general implication of the
Aratta cycle of myths is that Aratta played a seminal role in
the development of religion in Sumer, as well as in the construction
of its cult structures; and that trade and diplomacy between the
two states was of such importance that writing was developed specifically
for them.
The story of Ullikummi
is one episode in a cycle of related "songs" about the
god Kumarbi. Kumarbi's overarching aim was to overthrow the weather
god, Tessub, who was, through a curious circumstance, his own
son (87).
Kumarbi tries to achieve his end by producing monsters capable
of destroying Tessub. First, Kumarbi and his wife, Sertapsuruhi,
bear the dragon (or serpent) Hedamu. But Tessub's sister Sauska/Ishtar
seduces and neutralizes Hedamu (88).
Then Kumarbi has sexual intercourse with a rock cliff. The result
of that union was a genderless, deaf, blind, yet sentient pillar
of volcanic rock named Ullikummi. To hide Ullikummi during its
"minority", Kumarbi has it taken to the underworld.
Ullikummi is perched on the shoulder of Ubelluri, an Atlas-like
figure who is holding up the world and does not seem to notice
the additional weight. Ullikummi begins to grow like Jack's Beanstalk.
Soon it emerges from the underworld into a body of water. The
Sun God on his rounds sees this baleful phenomenon and quickly
reports it to Tessub (89).
Tessub, his brothers and
sister Sauska/Ishtar go up onto Mt. Hazzi and view the ever-growing
monster in panic (90).
[23] Once again, Tessub's sister tries to seduce the monster, but this
time she is literally romancing a stone, and is unable to stop
Ullikummi. By now, Ullikummi has grown up into the land of the
gods itself, and is blocking the doorway of Tessub's wife, Hebat.
"It took its stand before the gate of the city of Kummiya
(Tessub's city) like a shaft" (91).
The crisis is finally ended by Ea, the god of wisdom. Ea visits
the place of the ancient primeval gods, gets from their storehouse
a copper cutting instrument "which was used to separate the
earth and the sky", and,using it, cuts Ullikummi from Ubelluri's
shoulders (92).
[The Queen] of Kanesh once bore thirty sons in a single year. She said: "What a horde is this which I have born!" She caulked(?) baskets with dung, put her sons in them, and launched them in the river. The river carried them down to the sea at the land of Zalpuwa. Then the gods took them up out of the sea and reared them. When some years had passed, the queen again gave birth, this time to thirty daughters. This time she herself reared them (93).
The early inhabitants
of Mesopotamia were familiar with two parts of the Armenian highlands:
[24] the Diarbekir-Van-Urmia area in the south and (perhaps) the Ararat
area in the north. In the stories of the Gilgamesh and Aratta
cycles, eastern Asia Minor was considered a source of timber,
precious stones, metal and skilled craftsmen. The Mother goddess
is especially associated with the area, as are hybrid creatures
such as the Scorpion-people, and monsters like Humbaba. Eastern
Asia Minor is regarded as the place of salvation after the Deluge
in most versions of the Flood story, including the account in
Genesis. The early inhabitants of Mesopotamia also, apparently,
regarded eastern Asia Minor as the location of the paradisical
Garden of the gods, as well as the entrance to the underworld.
The Hurrians, who lived in the environs of Lake Van, sited many
of their myths in eastern Asia Minor. The volume of Hurrian material
which, currently, is not great, can be expected to increase with
future discoveries and publications. At present, nonetheless,
based solely on the Kumarbi cycle, three images emerge of eastern
Asia Minor: it was a place of metals and metallurgy from remote
antiquity, a place where Ishtar/Saushka, the goddess of love and
war, had special influence, and a place where monsters lived and
grew--be it the serpent/dragon Hedammu, or Ullikummi himself,
a monster made of volcanic rock.
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