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Sargon, Anitta, and the Hittite Kings against Purušḫanda

  • Giulia Torri
Published/Copyright: December 4, 2009
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Abstract

This article aims at showing how the juxtaposition of several manuscripts and oral stories that originated in different cultural and chronological layers formed the Hittite legend of Sargon’s expedition to Purušḫanda. Comparing the examples connected with the fall of Purušḫanda in the Hittite historical literature, it is possible to trace back the insertion of the city into the legend. In Hittite sources the conquest of Purušḫanda is evoked in the first lines of the proclamation of Telepinu (CTH 19) and in the historical fragments KBo 3.28 and KBo 3.46+ referring to the military campaigns of the first Hittite kings. The echo of this war is possibly reflected in the Hittite composition of the šar tamḫāri. In particular the choice of inserting the fall of Purušḫanda into the Sargon story could have been stimulated by the narration of the deeds of Anitta in the most ancient Hittite period.

Published Online: 2009-12-04
Published in Print: 2009-10

© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany

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