Takitu

Takitu, Takiti[1] or Daqitu[2] was a Hurrian goddess who served as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ḫepat. She appears alongside her mistress in a number of Hurrian myths, in which she is portrayed as her closest confidante. Her name is usually assumed to have its origin in a Semitic language, though a possible Hurrian etymology has also been proposed. She was worshiped in Hattusa, Lawazantiya and Ugarit.

Takitu
Major cult centerUgarit, Hattusa

Name

Multiple spellings of Takitu's name are attested in Hurrian and Hittite texts, alternating between ta and tu and da and du, which results in alternate forms such as Dakitu or Dakidu.[3] In the Ugaritic alphabetic script it was spelled as dqt.[3] Dennis Pardee vocalizes this form as Daqqītu,[4] while Daniel Schwmer as Daqitu.[2]

On the basis of the Ugaritic form of the name it has been proposed that it was derived from the Semitic root dqq, "small".[3] It can accordingly be translated as "the small one".[5] Meindert Dijkstra instead suggested that it might be connected with the Hurrian word taki, "beautiful".[6]

Character

Takitu fulfilled the role of Ḫepat's servant and divine vizier (sukkal).[1][3] Volkert Haas characterizes her as Ḫepat's closest confidante in myths.[7] Dennis Pardee argues that in Ugarit she belonged to the same group of deities as Pidray,[8] a local goddess considered to be analogous to Ḫepat.[9]

While in myths the role of Ḫepat's attendant belongs to Takitu, in some ritual texts it instead belongs to Tiyabenti,[10] a deity whose gender is unclear according to Gary Beckman,[11] but identified as a goddess by Marie-Claude Trémouille.[10] According to Alfonso Archi, Tiyabenti's name has Hurrian origin and means "he who speaks favorably" or "she who speaks favorably".[12] Takitu and Tiyabenti coexist in offering lists, where both can accompany Ḫepat, which according to Marie-Claude Trémouille indicates that theories according to which one of them was merely an epithet of the other are unsubstantiated.[10]

An offering lists focused on the circle of Ḫepat refers to Takitu as Taki-Takitu, "the beautiful Takitu".[13] According to Volkert Haas, she was imagined as a youthful deity.[7]

Worship

Takitu belonged to the circle of deities associated with Ḫepat, and appears in kaluti (offering lists) dedicated to her.[14] In Yazılıkaya, she is depicted behind Ḫepat's children Šarruma, Allanzu and Kunzišalli, in front of Hutena and Hutellura.[15] A Hurrian religions text mentions that during one ritual involving Kumarbi and the so-called "former gods", Takitu should sit next to Ḫepat, on her left side.[16] Another, which identifies her as a gatekeeper (Hurrian: amummekunni) similarly prescribes seating her to the left of her mistress.[17]

Locations where Takitu was worshiped include Hattusa, where a staff serving as a cultic utensil connected to her was held,[18] Lawazantiya in Kizzuwatna,[19] and Ugarit.[20] In the last of these cities, she is attested in a number Hurrian offering lists, either in her standard place after Ḫepat,[21] after Ninatta and Kulitta and before Nikkal, or in one case after Hutena and Hutellura as the last deity listed.[2] She also appears in a number of texts written in the Ugaritic language in an alphabetic script. She is mentioned in the very first text discovered during the excavations in 1929, a ritual taking place over the course of two days, partially at night.[22] She received an ewe as an offering during it, after the local goddess Pidray and before Tiraṯu,[23] the god of wine.[24] She is also mentioned in a deity list, which similarly places her after Pidray and before Tiraṯu.[4]

Mythology

A myth preserved on the tablet CTH 346.12 describes Takitu's journey through the lands of Mitanni to Šimurrum, undertaken on behalf of her mistress, Ḫepat.[25]

Takitu also appears in the Song of Ullikummi, where Ḫepat tasks her with finding out the fate of her husband Teshub after his initial confrontation with the eponymous monster.[1] Later Ḫepat's servants have to hold her to make sure she does not fall from the roof while Teshub's brother Tashmishu brings her information about his fate.[1]

References
  1. Bachvarova 2013, p. 173.
  2. Schwemer 2001, p. 547.
  3. Wilhelm 2013, p. 417.
  4. Pardee 2002, p. 21.
  5. del Olmo Lete & Sanmartin 2015, p. 276.
  6. Dijkstra 2014, p. 92.
  7. Haas 2015, p. 388.
  8. Pardee 2002, p. 277.
  9. Pardee 2002, p. 282.
  10. Trémouille 2014, p. 31.
  11. Beckman 1999, p. 37.
  12. Archi 2013, p. 7.
  13. Haas 2015, p. 383.
  14. Taracha 2009, p. 119.
  15. Taracha 2009, p. 95.
  16. Haas 2015, p. 257.
  17. Haas 2015, p. 906.
  18. Haas 2015, p. 512.
  19. Haas 2015, p. 581.
  20. Haas 2015, p. 558.
  21. Pardee 2002, p. 95.
  22. Pardee 2002, pp. 67–69.
  23. Pardee 2002, p. 69.
  24. Pardee 2002, p. 285.
  25. Wilhelm 2013, pp. 417–418.

Bibliography
  • Archi, Alfonso (2013). "The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background". In Collins, B. J.; Michalowski, P. (eds.). Beyond Hatti: a tribute to Gary Beckman. Atlanta: Lockwood Press. ISBN 978-1-937040-11-6. OCLC 882106763.
  • Bachvarova, Mary R. (2013). "The Hurro-Hittite Kumarbi Cycle". Gods, heroes, and monsters: a sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern myths. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-064481-9. OCLC 967417697.
  • Beckman, Gary (1999). "The Goddess Pirinkir and Her Ritual from Ḫattuša (CTH 644)". Ktèma: Civilisations de l'Orient, de la Grèce et de Rome antiques. PERSEE Program. 24 (1): 25–39. doi:10.3406/ktema.1999.2206. hdl:2027.42/77419. ISSN 0221-5896.
  • del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartin, Joaquín (2015). A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, United States: Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-28865-2. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  • Dijkstra, Meindert (2014). "The Hurritic Myth about Šaušga of Nineveh and Hasarri (CTH 776.2)". Ugarit-Forschungen. Band 45. Münster: Ugarit Verlag. ISBN 3-86835-086-1. OCLC 1101929531.
  • Haas, Volkert (2015) [1994]. Geschichte der hethitischen Religion. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East (in German). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29394-6. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  • Pardee, Dennis (2002). Ritual and cult at Ugarit. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-90-04-12657-2. OCLC 558437302.
  • Schwemer, Daniel (2001). Die Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens im Zeitalter der Keilschriftkulturen: Materialien und Studien nach den schriftlichen Quellen (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-04456-1. OCLC 48145544.
  • Taracha, Piotr (2009). Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia. Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3447058858.
  • Trémouille, Marie-Claude (2014), "Tijabenti", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in French), retrieved 2022-04-02
  • Wilhelm, Gernot (2013), "Takitu", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-02
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