The Myth of Telepinu
Also known as: Telipinu Myth, Myth of Telipinu, The Disappearance of Telipinu, Telepinu, Telipinu
The Hittite god Telepinu disappears in anger, causing cosmic barrenness and famine. After a divine search, a bee finds him; the goddess Kamrušepa performs rites to purge and seal away his anger, restoring fertility and order.
Description
This Hittite myth narrates the disappearance of Telepinu, a youthful vegetation and fertility deity whose wrath and withdrawal halt growth, milk, and prosperity across the world. The gods search in vain until the Mother-Goddess Hannahanna dispatches a small bee to find and sting Telepinu awake, cleansing him with wax and oil. The healing goddess Kamrušepa then recites and performs a complex incantation-ritual, transferring Telepinu’s anger and impurity into the underworld and sealing it away in metal containers so it cannot return. With the god pacified, rains resume, herds and fields flourish, and the cosmic equilibrium of Hatti is re-established, reflecting the myth’s close integration with agricultural cycles and state cult.
Historiography
The myth is preserved in multiple clay-tablet exemplars from the royal archives at Hattuša, reflecting variant and partial recensions with ritual rubrics interleaved in the narrative. Modern editions collate these fragments, noting formulaic passages that align the text with practical rites to counter famine and disorder. Scholarly discussions emphasize Hurrian and Anatolian syncretism, the performative role of the incantation, and the bee motif’s distinctive Anatolian coloring. The standard English reference remains collations and translations published in Hittitological corpora; the text is widely cited in studies of Near Eastern seasonal and fertility myth.
Date Notes
Survives on Hittite cuneiform tablets from Hattuša (Boğazköy); classified in the Hittite catalog as CTH 324; likely based on earlier Anatolian oral tradition.
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Telepinu
- Hannahanna
- The Bee
- Tarhun
- Kamrušepa
Myths
- Telepinu’s Disappearance and the World’s Famine
- The Bee Awakens the Angry God
- Rituals to Pacify Telepinu and Restore Order
Facts
- Catalogued as CTH 324 in the standard Hittite text corpus.
- Preserved on fragmented tablets from the Hattuša archives at Boğazköy (modern Turkey).
- Telepinu is a youthful vegetation and fertility god whose withdrawal halts growth and reproduction.
- Hannahanna’s dispatch of a bee is pivotal, a rare divine use of an insect as restorative agent.
- Kamrušepa’s ritual moves anger/impurity into sealed bronze containers, closed with lead, and banished below.
- The narrative embeds performative rubrics, indicating use in anti-famine and purification rites.
- The myth exemplifies Anatolian syncretism, with Hittite, Hurrian, and local elements.
- Cosmic disorder manifests concretely: fields fail, herds dry, hearths go cold, and kingship falters.
- The restoration sequence ties mythic pacification to seasonal renewal and agrarian abundance.
- Modern translations and collations derive from multiple overlapping, variant recensions.