Of souls traveling the road to the netherworld are known from many arscient cul-

tures. The Sumerians had different names for this: ‘a foreign road’ (kaskal-bar), ‘an

unknown road at the edge of the mountain’ (kaskal nu-za gaba-kur-ra-ka), ‘the road

of no return’ (kaskal nu-gi 4 -gi 4, Akkadian lä täri), ‘the road of the netherworld’

(kaskai-kur-ra(k)). 9j8 The last term is also found in Hittite texts as D KASKAL.KUK,

and as (DEUS)VIA+TERRA in the Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription from the funer-

ary chapel of Suppiluliuma II on the Südburg in Hattusa. 9 “ 9 In Hittite, it means an

Underground watercourse, 9< ’° perceived by the Hittites as one of the roads into the

Netherworld.

Appropriate rites connected with. the funeral ceremonies were essential for the

Soul to reach the meadow happily. Practically nothing is known about funerals of

958 KUB 43.60 and KBo 22.178(+)KUB 48.109 (CTH 457), Hoffner 1988b; Watkins 1995: 284ff.; Hoff-

Aer 1998: 331; Haas 2006: 23711; Archi 2007b. For a different Interpretation, see Polvani 2005.

In her opinion, KUB 43.60 i describes the journey that a soul takes before ‘entering’ a newborn

Child. Consequently, it wouid constitute a mythical tale connected to a birth ritual. There are no

Grounds for recognizing this text as a copy of an Oid Hittite original.

954 KUB 43.60 i 36 uelluwa li{liyahmi (>) “[I] has[ten(?)] to the meadow.” Cf. Archi 2007b: 174 (who

follows Watkins 1995: 287): “to the meadow let [me] trav[el quickly”

955 KBo 22.178{+)KUB 48.109 ii 4 ff., iii Iff., translated by Hoffner 1998: 34, here with sligbt changes;

Cf. also Polvani 2005: 620; Archi 2007b: 174.

Katz 2003: 227ff. with references. Considering the date of this topos, Kate emphasizes that none

Ol: the myths (Istar’s Descent, Gilgames VII, iv 32ff., Nergal and Ereskigal) has sources earlier

Than the Middle Babylonian period.

957 KU ß 43.60 i 29.

Katz 2003: passim; cf. also Archi 2007b: 186f.

Hawkins 1995: 22f., 44f.

Gordon 1967; Orten 1976—19802: 1988: 33f.

161

Thf. Empire Period

Ordinarv people, but a Kizzuwatnean funerary ritual shows that passage to the

Meadow of the netherworld was probably not limited to just the king and queen.

Düring the ritual with the participation of the isharalli -priestess of the goddess

(Hamri-)Ishara and the patili-pnest the latter calls six times the one who died by

Name from the roof of his house, asking “those gods with whom he (is)” JbJ where he

Had gone. When the patili-pnest poses the question the seventh time, he hears in

answer: “For Mm the day of (his) mother [has come and] she has taken Mm by the

Hand and accompanied. him,” 962

The death of a lang was thought to be highly disconcerting from a religious point

Of view. It meant the loss of a man whose task was to contact the gods on behalf of

The entire community and to celebrate their cults, a man who guaranteed the pros-

Perity of the land. With his death came a state of common threat, and for this

reason the death. of a member of the royal family was called sallis wastais ‘great

968

Calamity (lit. big mishap).’ This expression is used in the opening lines of the four-

Teen-day royal funerary ritual: “H the Great Calamity occurs in Hattusa: either the

984

king or the queen becomes a deity (i.e. dies).”'

The ritual was intended to cremate the body and to transfer the spirit and the

Soul separated from the body at the moment of death from this World through the

liminal state of transition to a new exist,ence in the netherworld.' ' A symbolic break

With affairs of this life is pointedly expressed in the magical practice of burning

A cord and the calling of weepers: “When thou wilt go to the meadow, do not pull

, 966

the cord!”' ' At the same time the soul of the dead king or queen received offerings

Together with divinities and ancestor spirits. The funerary ritual introdueed him/

961 Cf. KUB 30.28+ obv. 12* D Ha-am-ri-is-ha-ra D [, and 29’ D Ha-am-ri-is-ha-ra-as D f, Otten 1958b:

F. For Hamri-Ishara, the avatar of the goddess Ishara, see 3.2.5.

962 KUB 30.28 rev. llf. (with its duplicate KBo 34.80, 5? f£.)? Otten 1958h: 96f.; van. den Hout 1994a:

Archi 2007h: 189.

CHD S 99.

964 KUB 30.16+KUB 39.1 i If. For the sallis wastais ritual, see Otten 1958h: Christmann-Frank

Kassian - Korolev - SideJ’tsev 2002; cf. also Haas 1994a: 219ff.; van den Hout 1994a:

Ff.; 1995b; Taracha 1998b; Haas 2000: 56ff.; Kapelus 2008: 8Iff.; Rutherford 2007: 223ff,;

Kapelus 2008.

965 As A.C. Cohen (2005: 17£.) remarks, “this stru.cturi.ng of death rituals as rites of passage may be