The Fertility Myth "Telepinu"


Myths attempt to answer questions that are eternal to all civilizations: Where did I come from? How much control do I have over my life? What must I do to survive? How should I live?  They often reflect the political, economic, social, and religious foundations of the culture, and are ensconced in the mystery and mysticism of nature.  Ancient civilizations were so dependent upon the forces of nature for success or failure that these forces were often personified as gods.

Fertility Myths

Fertility myths respond to a need for economic security in a world dependent upon nature for stability.  Lives in ancient cultures revolved around the agricultural year.  Because a good harvest was central to survival, fertility --  reproduction, birth, growth, abundance -- came to be personified as a powerful fertility god, and the seasons came to reflect the cycle of life. 

Spring is the season of birth and summer is the season of growth.  Autumn is the season of maturation (the harvest) and winter is the season of death, where everything dies and nothing grows.  If spring or summer bring drought or flood, crops and pastures wither away, livestock die, and the harvest is insufficient to sustain the civilization during winter.  

The Cycle of Life

Birth ----> Growth ---> Maturation --> Death --> Rebirth
Spring --> Summer --> Autumn -----> Winter

Rebirth is found in the cyclical nature of the seasons.  Everything dies during winter and is born again next spring.  Stories that show the tight bond between fertility gods, nature, and people abound.  Often the cycle of life is hidden in the story, and the reader must seek it out.  

In most cultures, East and West, the fertility myth takes the form of a fertility god who goes missing, and whose disappearance causes everything to cease growing and reproduce.  

Telepinu is a Hittite fertility myth, and there are many versions.  The Hittite civilization, existed in northern Mesopotamia (parts of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) from 2000 - 1200 B.C.  -- about the same time as the pre-Greek Mycenaean civilization existed. 

Telepinu Myth

The Telepinu myth starts with:  
One day Telepinu, the god who made living things fertile, became furious and shouted, "I am so angry! No one should come near me!" He was so upset that he tried to put his right shoe upon his left foot and his left shoe upon his right foot. This made him even angrier.  
Finally he fixed his shoes and stalked off. He took with him the ripening grain, the fertile winds, and the abundant growth in the fields, meadows, and grassy plains. He went into the country and wandered into a secluded meadow that was sheltered among the grove of trees. There exhaustion overcame him, and he fell asleep. 
Here we see the close relationship between people, their fertility god, nature, and security.  Telepinu is angry and leaves, and when he goes he takes all that is fertile and has been produced with him.  

Note how human-like Telepinu is.  He gets angry like people get angry; he even puts his shoes on the wrong feet.  The creation of an  anthropomorphic god who controls a force of nature is no accident.  Nature cannot be persuaded or convinced to be kind to you, but if nature is controlled by an anthropomorphic god, then by worshiping the god you can make fertility be kind to you. 

Continuing:

Livestock cease to reproduce, crops and trees wither in the field, pastures shrivel, springs dry up, and humans and gods fear starvation.  The gods search for Telepinu but cannot find him, so the sun god sends forth an eagle but he too fails to find Telepinu.  
The storm god became worried and angry. He went to his father and said "Who has offended my son so that the seeds have dried up and everything has withered?" 
His father replied. "No one has offended him but you. You are the one who is responsible!" 
Tarthun responded, "you are wrong! I am not responsible!"
His father then said, "I will look into that matter. If I find that you are guilty, I will kill you! Now go look for Telepinu!" 
That the Sun God is willing to kill the Storm God shows the importance of the Fertility God in Hittite culture.

Continuing:

 The storm god asks Nintu the Mother Goddess for assistance, and she agrees to help.  Meanwhile Tarhun continues to look for Telepinu to no avail.  He returns to Nintu who tells Tarhun to bring her a bee, which he does, and Nintu instructs the bee as follows:

Little bee go and search for Telepinu! When you find him, sting his hands and feet. Sting him until he springs to his feet! Then take some of your wax, and wipe his eyes and feet. Purify him and bring him before me!" 

As Tarhun watched Nintu with the little bee, he said, "The great gods and the lesser gods have searhced for Telepinu without finding him. How do you expect a bee to do any better than we did? Its wings are very small and weak, and it is a very small and weak creature. How can it succeed where the gods have failed?"  

Indeed, why a bee?  The bee takes on practical and symbolic importance, and the significance of the bee to fertility cannot be overstated.  Many trees, flowers, and crops would fail to reproduce without the assistance of the humble bee.  Since Telepinu is the god of fertility, the bee is his servant and the creature most connected to him, and, therefore, the one most likely to find him.

Continuing:

The bee finds Telepinu and stings him awake.  But Telepinu is furious the bee has awakened him, and his rage causes floods (recurring flood theme) that destroy animals, people, and cities.  The Goddess of Healing soothes Telepinu with essence of cedar, sesame, and figs.  Then a human priest prays to Telepinu.

"Let Telepinu's rage, anger, wrath, and fury depart!  Let them leave the house, the window, the courtyard, the gate, the gateway, and the road of the king. Let them stay far removed from the thriving field, the garden, and the orchard."  

"Let them go the way the sun god travels each night, into the Netherworld. The doorkeeper has unlocked the seven bolts and opened the seven doors of the Underworld. Bronze containers with metal lids and handles stand deep within the dark earth. Whatever enters them does not leave them because it perishes there. Let these containers receive Telepinu's rage, anger, wrath, and fury, and let them never return! 

"I have purified Telepinu!" the man concluded. "I have removed the evil from his body. I have removed his rage, anger, wrath, and fury!"

Here we see the significance of prayer in persuading a God to do human bidding.  And note the importance of gateways and the underworld in ridding Telepinu of his anger.  The anger is treated as if it were a demon possessing Telepinu.  The power priests held in ancient agricultural societies was significant and rivaled the power of kings.  Not even the gods can calm Telepinu's rage without the assistance of a human priest.  The bond between human and god was much tighter and personal then than it is today.

Once Telepinu is calmed, things return to normal and the story ends with a sacrifice that symbolizes abundance and economic security.

A pole was set up before Telepinu, and from it the fleece of a sheep was suspended. It signified abundance: plentiful grain and wine, fat cattle and sheep, and successive generations of children. It signified fruitful breezes and fertility for every living thing.

A couple of additional questions.  Feel free to answer in the comments section. 

What is the significance, if any, of Telepinu putting his shoes on the wrong feet?

Why did the bee sting Telepinu?

What is the significance of the bee smoothing wax over Telepinu's eyes and feet?

Comments

  1. ruthjheflin.comOctober 23, 2019 at 1:21 PM

    What fascinates me most about this Telepinu tale is that it parallels The Iliad in that the epic poem begins with Achilles' anger and tantrum, as well, which was, according to some scholars, the typical practice for many epic tales--the emotion then drives the plot. It takes a lot longer for Achilles to be appeased than it takes Telepinu because he rejects everyone's attempts--friends and King Agamemnon's attempts--to placate him, so that Achilles does not re-enter the battle at Troy until after the death of his beloved cousin and friend, Patroclus, who died because he felt the Mycenaeans needed to see Achilles' armor, even if not Achilles himself, in battle, so that Achilles' anger over losing one lover, Brisieis, results in the death of another, Patroclus.

    Be careful, though, of reading too much into bees as "fertility" figures to the ancients. While the Hittites understood some aspects of how to make plants fertile, it's doubtful they understood that bees were pollenating flowers. Instead, both honey and bees wax were highly valuable commodities. Honey was used regularly in making beer and wine, and bees wax was used in lost-wax methods of metal working and for combining with fragrances to make rub on (or, in the case of the Egyptians, melt on) perfumes. Even the Assyrians--who were more technologically advanced than the Hittites--knew the fertilization of plants occurred somehow, but they ascribed the task to magical beings similar to Assyrian Apkallu, who are often mislabeled in museums as mere "genies but who are magical beings that protect kings and propogate prosperity, which many scholars oversimplify as "fertility."

    Wool, too, was an important commodity in the mountains where the Hittites lives because it got very cold there and wool was probably the first cloth material they learned to weave into clothing and blankets.

    Note that male rage, especially before, during and after battles, is something that ancient societies had to deal with, and often that rage--and the blood debt the violence cost the individual warriors--was assuaged through communal rituals that cleansed the warriors and allowed them to return, safely, to society, so this intercession on the part of a spiritual leader would not have been unusual or striking to most ancient people.

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