The New Akkadian Solar Hymn and Prayer from Ortaköy/ Šapinuwa (DAAM 2.6): An Interpretation and Trilingual Commentary

Abstract

This article offers a detailed interpretation of the fragmentary Akkadian solar hymn and prayer from modern Ortaköy/ancient Šapinuwa recently published by D. Schwemer and A. Süel (DAAM 2.6). As recognised by its editors, DAAM 2.6 is an intermediary version that links the Sumerian solar hymn ‘Utu N’ from southern Mesopotamia to the Hittite corpus of solar hymns and prayers CTH 372–374 from central Anatolia. On the basis of DAAM 2.6 and other recent Sumerological and Hittitological research, the present article seeks to reconstruct the contexts and transmission of the Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite sources: it is here argued, in particular, that the poem is likely always to have been associated with royal cults of the Sun, in both Mesopotamia and Anatolia. DAAM 2.6 and related texts therefore deserve attention not only as a uniquely detailed example of multi-lingual literary transmission in the ancient Near East, but also as a paradigm for cultural and religious contact in the ancient world in general. The present article seeks to facilitate the interpretation of the sources by offering a commentary on those passages of the hymn and prayer that are currently extant in Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite, with a focus on philological aspects and on the choices made by the Hittite translators of the Sumero-Akkadian model.