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Maliya

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Maliya
Goddess of rivers, gardens and craftmanship
Major cult centerKanesh,Hattusa,Kummanni,Rhodiapolis
Equivalents
Greek equivalentAthena

Maliyawas a goddess worshiped byHittitesin theBronze Age.She was most likely a deified river in origin, but she was also associated with gardens and with artisanship, specifically with leatherworking and carpentry. The oldest attestations of her have been identified in the Old Assyrian texts fromKanesh.This city continued to be associated with her in later tradition, though she was also worshiped inHattusaand elsewhere in theHittite Empire.She is also present in texts originating inKizzuwatna,which indicate she had a temple inKummanni,where she was worshiped alongside variousHurrian deities.

It is assumed that a similarly named goddess attested inLyciantexts from the first millennium BCE corresponds to earlier Hittite Maliya. She was worshiped in Rhodiapolis and in other cities in Lycia, and might have been a war goddess.Malis,known fromLydiansources and from references inGreek literature,is also assumed to be a derivative of Maliya by most authors. A text from Lesbos describes her as a weaver. The Lycian and Lydian forms of Maliya were regarded as analogous to Greek Athena, though it remains a matter of debate among researchers how was the correspondence between them initially established. Malis also survived in Greek sources as the name of one of thenaiadsresponsible for kidnappingHylas,or alternatively as a slave of queenOmphale.

Second millennium BCE

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Maliya originally belonged to the pantheon ofKanesh(modern Kültepe).[1][2]The oldest attestations of her name aretheophoric namesof women (for example Maliawasḫai) and toponyms (such as Malitta) mentioned inOld Assyriantexts from this site.[3][4]

It is presumed that Maliya might have originally been thenumenof the river sharing the same name,[5]as indicated by the occasional spelling of her name incuneiformwith thedeterminativeÍD.[6]It has been proposed that the river Maliya might correspond to either Parthenios (Παρθένιος) in historicalPhrygiaor to Melas (Μέλας) nearCaesareainCappadocia.[7]The etymology of the name is unclear.[4]It has been argued in the past that Maliya can be considered "proto-Luwian",[8]but according toManfred Hutter's more recent study she did not have Luwian origin.[9]Calvert Watkinsproposes connecting her name with the nounmāl-,"inner strength" or "mental force", attested both inHittiteand Luwian.[10]This etymology is also accepted by Mary R. Bachvarova.[11]Matilde Serangeli interprets Maliya's name as "goddess of thought" relying on a similar assumption.[12]In early scholarship, attempts were made to prove Maliya was aKassite deityin origin instead.[4]

Hittite attestations

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The worship of Maliya continued inAnatoliaunder the rule of theHittites,[1]and she is well attested in various Hittite sources.[13]She was associated with water, especially with rivers, in Hittite tradition.[14]An inventory tablet (KUB 38.33; line 5 on the obverse) mentions an iron statue of Maliya, described as a female river deity.[15]She also functioned as a goddess of gardens.[16]"Maliya of the Garden" is mentioned in the text KUB 42.23, which calls her the "mother of wine and grain".[17]Thishypostasisof the goddess received offerings alongside the vegetation godTelipinu.[5]As a goddess responsible for the growth of plants she could also be invoked alongsideInaraand the river goddess Šaḫiriya.[18]An offering list from the reign ofTudḫaliya IVmentions a mountain deity named Maliya as well, possibly to be identified with Malimaliya known from other Hittite texts.[19]However, the latter was a male deity.[20]The corresponding mountain might be Mamu Dağ, located northeast ofTokatinTurkey.[4]There is also evidence that Maliya was associated withleatherworkers.[21]A community of leather workers and tanners dedicated to her lived close to a stream located in the proximity of theašušagate ofHattusa.[22]The text IBoT 3.1 mentions a high ranking leatherworker offering a type of vessel used to store perfume (talla/i-) during a drinking rite of Maliya performed in front of the royal couple.[23]An association between Maliya and carpenters is also attested.[14]"Maliya of the Carpenter" was among the deities of the town Salluntassi.[24]

In Hittite religion Maliya was traditionally associated with the city of Kanesh, and a "singer of Kanesh", who sung in the "Nesite" (Hittite) language was involved in a number of ceremonies dedicated to her.[25]It is assumed that the Kaneshite deities formed the oldest stratum ofHittite religion,[6]but it is possible that the later group of "gods of Kanesh" in rituals was a conglomerate of deities originally belonging to various traditions and that as a whole it did not necessarily reflect the composition of the earliest Hittite pantheon.[26]In the oldest sources fromHattusa,Maliya'scultseemingly had a domestic character, but she also appears in the context of royal rituals after the rise of the Hittite Empire.[15]She is mentioned for example in a text pertaining to a festival meant to secure good fortune for the house of a ruler and to guarantee him an heir[27]and a prayer in which she is invoked alongside theWeather god of Nerikto help suffering petitioners.[28]During the reign of Tudḫaliya IV the central location associated with her, as well as with the other deities of Kanesh, was the so-called "Great Temple" in this city.[29]Deities from this group, including Maliya, as well asPirwaandAškašepa,were also worshiped in Ištanuwa.[30]A different group, consisting of Maliya, a local storm god anddU.GUR(in this context possibly a logograpic spelling of the name ofZilipuri,aHattianchthonicgod from the circle ofLelwani,or less plausibly theMesopotamian godNergal) was seemingly worshiped in Ḫulaša.[31]The existence of a city named after Maliya in Hittite times, while suggested in older literature, is now considered unproven.[6]

Maliya was commonly associated with Kamrušepa, the goddess of magic and midwifery.[15]In a narrative introduction to a healing formula, Maliya is one of the deities who make sure the information about the patient's state reaches Kamrušepa.[32]In other Hittite sources, Maliya is accompanied by helpers known as Maliyanni, whose name is the plural of a diminutive form of her own name, Maliyanna, "little Maliya".[33]According toVolkert Haas,similarly to other groups of deities whose names were constructed analogously, such as Ninattanni (Ninatta and Kulitta) orŠarrumanni,they should be considered a group of two.[34]Piotr Taracha assumes that they were hypostases of Maliya herself.[35]In one case, they appear in a ritual meant to secure the prosperity of avineyard.[35]Comparisons have been made between them and later Greeknymphs.[4][36]Another group of deities associated with Maliya were the "male gods of Maliya" (dmaliyaš DINGIR.LÚMEŠ), presumed to be minor deities comparable to the concept ofgenius locilinked to specific natural features, for example rivers and springs, and possibly patterned onHurriantraditions which reached the Hittite Empire throughKizzuwatna.[6]

Luwian attestations

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Maliya was incorporated intoLuwian religion,and is one of the best attested goddesses worshiped byLuwians.[9][37]Manfred Hutter assumes the information about her character provided by Hittite text can be assumed to apply to her in Luwian context as well.[9]While according to Piotr Taracha it is incorrect to assume a single Luwian pantheon existed, some deities, including her, as well as the likes ofKamrušepa,Tarhunt,Tiwad,Arma,IyarriandŠantawere nonetheless worshiped by all Luwian communities.[37]She is best attested in texts from the south of Anatolia.[15]She appears in Luwian context in sources from the basin of Zuliya (modernÇekerek River), though individual place names related to her are not preserved in most known documents.[38]She is also present in an enumeration of deities of an unknown presumably Luwian city known from a Hittite offering list from the beginning of the imperial period.[39]

Kizzuwatnean attestations

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Maliya was also worshiped in the "Hurrianized"religion ofKizzuwatna,where she had a temple in the city ofKummanni.[15]A partially preserved text states that it also housed the statues of six groups of other deities, includingNinatta and Kulitta,Hutena and Hutellura,a dyad referred to as Tiyabenti, Kuzzina-Kuzpazena, Kunizizi (paired with a deity whose name does not survive) and Ānnaliya (possibly mentioned alongsideIšḫara).[40]Kuzzina-Kuzpazena were a group of Hurrian deities associated with her in local tradition.[15]According to Volkert Haas, they most likely functioned as her helpers.[41]

In the texts from the reign ofPuduḫepawhich describe the annualḫišuwafestival meant to guarantee the well being of the royal family, Maliya is listed alongside other deities of Kummiya: "TeshubManuzi",Lelluri,Išḫara,Allaniand a pair of manifestations ofNupatik.[42]Sussane Görke argues her presence in this text might be a result of Luwian influence, though she also remarks very little other evidence for it can be identified.[43]The entire ceremony lasted nine days.[42]Maliya is mentioned in the end of the tablet dealing with the second day,[43]where a ritual ablution of her statue as well as a clothing ceremony during which it received a red garment and belt is described.[44]Another one, describing the third day, mentions rites taking place in her temple.[45]One of them involved a divine horse, Erama.[46]

First millennium BCE

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While many deities belonging to variousBronze AgeAnatolian pantheons ceased to be worshiped in theIron Age,[47]it is presumed to be derivatives of Maliya continued to be worshiped through the first millennium BCE.[48][49][13]However, the connection between second and first millennium BCE evidence is not universally accepted, and due to apparent lack of similar functionsCalvert Watkinsargued the Hittite Maliya and similarly named later deities merely hadhomophonousnames.[50]Ian Rutherford, who unlike Watkins considers it plausible that the first millennium Maliya was identical with the goddess known from earlier sources, also stresses that her character is not identical.[51]

Lycian attestations

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Many attestations of Maliya are available fromLycia,where she was regarded as the tutelary goddess ofRhodiapolis.[13]In this city, she was known under the epithetWedrenni,while in Phelos she was called Eriyupama, possibly either "the highly exalted" or "who overcame the enemy", with the latter interpretation making it possible to interpret her as a warlike goddess.[52]Trevor R. Brycenotes the view that the Lycian form of Maliya possessed such a role is also supported by an inscription fromXanthosand by a sarcophagus lid depicting her alongsideAmazonsin a battle scene.[48]Maliya is also referenced in the tomb inscription of a certain Iyamara, which might designate him as the priest of this goddess.[53]In some of the Lycian cities, Maliya was worshiped alongside the local weather god,Trqqas.[54]

In Lycian tradition theGreek goddessAthenawas understood as analogous to Maliya.[55]The assimilation of the two might have been originally politically motivated, with a local dynasty aiming to adhere to a Greek cultural model.[52]An inscription on a silver vase fromPithomdecorated with a depiction of thejudgment of Parislabels an Athena-like goddess as Maliya.[13]The other figures are referred to withLycianspellings of their Greek names, Pedrita (Aphrodite) and Aliχssa (Alexander =Paris).[56]It is commonly assumed that the correspondence between Maliya and Athena relied on both goddesses having aPoliasaspect, but the interpretation of the former's local epithet Wedrenni as "of the city" is now regarded as implausible in the light of discovery of Lycian terms for a city (teteriandminna,rather thanwedri,the latter possibly meaning "country" ) and according to Eric Raimond a possibility is that it relied on analogous warlike function indicated respectively by the titles Eriyupama and Ptoliporthos ( "who sacks cities", applied to Athena in the inscription on theXanthian Obelisk).[52]Ian Rhuterford instead assumes the equation might have been based on the influence ofRhodes,where Athena was a commonly worshiped deity (especially inLindos), on Lycian culture of the fifth century BCE.[57]A second possibility he considers is their shared characters as crafts goddesses.[58]Matilde Serangeli, relying on a proposed etymology of Maliya's name, argues the equation might have been based on the connection between the meaning of her name, possibly connected to terms such as "thought" or "mental strength", with Athena's well attested role as a goddess of wisdom.[12]

Lydian attestations

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It is agreed that Maliya was a forerunner to theLydiangoddess Malis.[59][13]She was understood as analogous to Greek Athena, as indicated by a Greek-Lydianbilingual text fromPergamonand by a number of literary references identified in works of authors such asHipponaxandHesychius.[60]The aforementioned bilingual is one of the only Lydian texts which were not found in the proximity ofSardis,and is substantially later than the rest of the corpus, with the most estimates dating it to the late fourth century BCE, specifically to the period between 330 and 325 BCE based on the fact that it mentions that a certain Paitaras was a donor responsible for funding the column it was inscribed on, erected during the construction of the local temple of Athena.[61]Paitaras is not known from any other sources, though the fact his dedication is bilingual might indicate that Pergamon had an influential and prosperous Lydian community at the time.[62]

While Greek literary tradition presents the kings of Lydia as sponsors of the cult of Athena, she does not appear in sources from Sardis predating the rule of theAttaliddynasty (180 - 133 BCE) and therefore it has been proposed that such attestations can reflect traditions pertaining to the cult of Malis from before the period ofHellenization.[63]

Greek attestations

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Multiple references to Malis are also known from Greek sources.[64]Based on attested Greek spellings of her name is presumed Greek authors learned about her from Lydian sources, rather than Lycian or Luwian.[65]However, the degree to which they were familiar with her remains uncertain.[47]Ian Rutherford compares her case to that ofSandas,[66]and with less certainty toKubaba,who also retained a degree of relevance after the second millennium BCE, and continued to be referenced in Greek texts.[47]

A literary fragment fromLesbosportrays Malis (Μᾶλις) as a weaver, and according to Annick Payne might be an indication the goddess was also worshiped by Greeks.[13]Rutherford notes that if this description reflects an Anatolian tradition, it might have been the reason behind the frequent equation between Malis and Athena, though he also considers it possible that it was a Greek invention relying on a preexisting equation.[66]At the same time, he tentatively speculates that since the myth ofArachneis not recorded in sources predatingOvid,according to whom the contest between the mythical weavers took place inHypaepain Lydia, it might have originally been a Lydian myth about Malis, if the hypothesis that she was a weaver goddess is accepted.[67]Payne in her analysis of available evidence notes that a figurine of a weaver in Lydian headwear found atEphesusmight also be evidence of Greek worship of Malis as a deity of such character.[13]Hipponax,an early Greek poet who apparently spoke both Greek and Lydian, left behind a short invocation addressed to Malis (Μαλὶς):

O Malis, help me (?), and since it is my lot to have a demented master I beg of you that I not get a beating.[66]

Hylas and the Nymphs(1896) byJohn William Waterhouse

A waternymph(naiad) named Malis (Μαλίς) is attested inTheocritus'Idylls.[13]Alongside two other nymphs, Eunika and Nicheia,[68]she resided inKiosonPropontis,and together they were responsible for the abduction ofHylas.[54]Ian Rutherford notes that view that Malis was a river nymph appears to align with the original role of Maliya as a river goddess.[14]Sophoclesin the playPhiloctetesmentions a plurality of nymphs with a similar name,[13]Maliades(Μαλιάδες) from the riverSpercheios.[33]However, according to Rutherford, they are most likely not related to the singular Malis, and should be assumed to be connected toMalisin Greece instead.[54]

In a different Greek tradition Malis, while associated with Lydia, was only regarded as a slave ofOmphale,a mythical queen of this realm.[59][54]This view can be found in the works ofStephanus of ByzantiumandHellanikos.[13]According to the latter of these two authors, she had a son withHeracles,Akeles, which might reflect a tradition in which the goddess Malis was worshiped alongside Sandas, an Anatolian god identified with the Greek hero, though there is no certain evidence in favor of this interpretation,[69]and no known texts from the second millennium BCE associate them with each other.[2]

Attempts have been made to connect the supposed theonym Damalis, present inLife and Miracles of Saint Theclafrom the first century CE alongside Sandas, to Malis, but they are not regarded as plausible, and the "city of Sandas and Damalis" mentioned in this text might be a reinterpretation ofDalisandosinIsauria.[69]

References

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  1. ^abFrantz-Szabó 1987,p. 304.
  2. ^abWatkins 2007,p. 123.
  3. ^Wegner 1981,p. 214.
  4. ^abcdeFrantz-Szabó 1987,p. 305.
  5. ^abSchwemer 2022,p. 376.
  6. ^abcdBarsacchi 2016,p. 9.
  7. ^Serangeli 2015,p. 377.
  8. ^Wegner 1981,p. 215.
  9. ^abcHutter 2003,p. 231.
  10. ^Watkins 2007,p. 124.
  11. ^Bachvarova 2016,p. 447.
  12. ^abSerangeli 2015,pp. 385–386.
  13. ^abcdefghijPayne 2019,p. 242.
  14. ^abcRutherford 2020,p. 331.
  15. ^abcdefTaracha 2009,p. 115.
  16. ^Haas 2015,p. 410.
  17. ^Taracha 2009,p. 115-116.
  18. ^Haas 2015,p. 479.
  19. ^Haas 2015,pp. 410–411.
  20. ^Haas 2015,p. 496.
  21. ^Steitler 2019,p. 131.
  22. ^Taracha 2009,p. 132.
  23. ^Steitler 2019,pp. 131–132.
  24. ^Cammarosano 2015,p. 216.
  25. ^Taracha 2009,p. 30.
  26. ^Archi 2010,p. 32.
  27. ^Taracha 2009,p. 51.
  28. ^Haas 2015,p. 607.
  29. ^Taracha 2009,p. 133.
  30. ^Taracha 2009,pp. 116–117.
  31. ^Barsacchi 2016,p. 10.
  32. ^Haas 2015,p. 412.
  33. ^abSerangeli 2015,p. 379.
  34. ^Haas 2015,p. 313.
  35. ^abTaracha 2009,p. 116.
  36. ^Steitler 2019,p. 132.
  37. ^abTaracha 2009,p. 107.
  38. ^Taracha 2009,p. 100.
  39. ^Taracha 2009,p. 101.
  40. ^Haas 2015,p. 850.
  41. ^Haas 2015,p. 468.
  42. ^abTaracha 2009,p. 138.
  43. ^abGörke 2022,p. 153.
  44. ^Haas 2015,p. 855.
  45. ^Haas 2015,pp. 855–856.
  46. ^Haas 2015,p. 417.
  47. ^abcRutherford 2017,p. 81.
  48. ^abBryce 1983,p. 6.
  49. ^Hutter 2003,pp. 231–232.
  50. ^Watkins 2007,pp. 123–124.
  51. ^Rutherford 2020,pp. 330–331.
  52. ^abcRaimond 2007,p. 154.
  53. ^Bryce 1981,p. 83.
  54. ^abcdRutherford 2020,p. 330.
  55. ^Raimond 2007,p. 153.
  56. ^Bryce 1981,p. 84.
  57. ^Rutherford 2017,p. 88.
  58. ^Rutherford 2020,p. 332.
  59. ^abHaas 2015,p. 411.
  60. ^Payne 2019,p. 241.
  61. ^Payne & Sasseville 2016,p. 67.
  62. ^Payne & Sasseville 2016,p. 68.
  63. ^Payne 2019,pp. 241–242.
  64. ^Payne 2019,p. 244.
  65. ^Payne & Sasseville 2016,p. 77.
  66. ^abcRutherford 2020,p. 329.
  67. ^Rutherford 2020,pp. 329–220.
  68. ^Serangeli 2015,p. 378.
  69. ^abRutherford 2017,p. 91.

Bibliography

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