In Origins Section 7.4 Giorgio Buccellati helps us understanding how in the Song of Silver it is possible to notice relevant aspects related to politics; even further, following this common thread, there are many other aspects of particular relevance and there is a central topos that, in my opinion, could link the “songs” of the Hurro-Hittite composition labeled as “Kumarbi Cycle”, i.e. the continuous struggle for the kingship in heaven between Kumarbi and Teššub, the Storm-god.
In fact, both the protagonists of the told events have their identifying city (i.e., they are polyad deities): the seat of Kumarbi’s cult was Urkesh, as Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati proved (see, e.g., Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 2009), while Teššub is associated with the city of “Kumme”; furthermore, both the gods have their viziers supporting their “master” deity, by helping them in their own plans: Mukišanu for Kumarbi and Tašmisu for Teššub.
The sequence of the different episodes is not that precise, and Harry A. Hoffner claimed that the “Song of Kumarbi” was the opening section in which the gods are invited to listen to the story relevant to the battle between Anu and Kumarbi with the consequent birth of Teššub.
In the opening section of the “song”, Kumarbi fights in first person against Anu; later on, the birth of Teššub is described at the presence of the goddesses of fate; it it noteworthy that, in the following “songs”, Kumarbi will never fight in first person but will, instead, generate creatures able to dethrone Teššub himself.
At this point of the story (see Hoffner 1998 Myths, §18, A iii, 2-21) it seems that someone else should take care of fighting Teššub once he reaches the age of majority; this is very likely because Kumarbi is not allowed to do it himself; perhaps, Teššub was recognized by Kumarbi because (cf. Hoffner 1998 Myths, §17, A ii 76-86) of the presence of the goddesses of fate; even though, there is no precise description as in the “Song of Ullikummi”.
In fact, in the “Song of Ullikummi”, Kumarbi is described as leaving the city of Urkesh to go towards the “cold spring”; I think, allegedly, of a place quite high where there are springs of fresh water (which is specified to be cold) and a rock of very large dimensions, maybe on the mountains of the Taurus chain, since Urkesh is located at the foothills of this very mountain range, and it was probably a place known to the people of that time, as there was a source of a river. In that place, the stone “monster” would be generated, and fated to dethrone Teššub; this son was born in the presence of the goddesses of fate and the mother goddesses, and, unlike other “monster” creatures, he is formally and officially legitimized through the deposition of the newborn on the knees of the father (a scene, i.e. that of “touching the knees”, also represented in the Urkesh glyptics), who manifested care of him and took care of keeping him safe until he came of age.
In my opinion, we could infer about a possible link between the “Song of Ullikummi” and the “Song of Silver”, because Silver, undertaking a journey from his village to Urkesh to look for his father, once he arrived in the city, did not find him (perhaps, because Kumarbi was going to the “cold spring” to generate Ullikummi); in the “Song of Silver”, it is also stated that Kumarbi wandered through the lands, through the mountains, and this fact is understood as the precise moment when Teššub (either in the “Song of Silver” and the “Song of Ullikummi”) was king in the heavens.
In effect, in the “Song of Silver”, the character’s mother tells her son that Teššub is his brother, king in heavens and king on earth. Hence, the orphanage condition of Silver is, fairly likely, related to the fact that Silver did not receive legitimacy from his father (but this is not possible to be surely stated, as the narrative is interrupted in many relevant spots).
A last remark on the present topic: in the “Song of Ullikummi”, we face the deity of wisdom Ea who, addressing the primeval gods, tells that he bring the seals; it seems, at least to me, that he wanted to make his words official in that very moment (see Hoffner 1998 Myths, §63, A iii 48-55). Indeed, Ea, in the “Song of Hedammu”, instituted a divine assembly where he admonished Kumarbi for the devastation caused by the battle between his monster Hedammu and Teššub, causing a painful situation for mortals, represented, namely, by the flood.
I think that in this passage, we couls envisage a testimony of great importance about the relationships between mortals (human beings) and gods, through their offerings and sacrifices of livestock, acting at their support.
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