Kumarbi
Also known as: Father of the gods (Hurrian)
Mythological Narrative
Hurrian father of the gods who seizes kingship in heaven by biting off the sky-god Anu's loins, unwittingly conceives the storm-god Teššub, and spends the rest of the Kumarbi cycle fathering monsters to overthrow him.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## A Hurrian god in Hittite translation
Kumarbi belongs to the Hurrian pantheon of northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. His city was Urkeš (modern Tell Mozan in northeastern Syria), one of the oldest Hurrian centres, and he was equated in god-lists with the Mesopotamian grain-god Dagan and with Enlil. Everything known of his mythology comes from Hurrian songs preserved mainly in Hittite translation at Hattusa: the Song of Kumarbi (CTH 344), the Song of Hedammu (CTH 348), and the Song of Ullikummi (CTH 345).
## Kingship in heaven
In the Song of Kumarbi, kingship in heaven passes through three generations. Alalu reigns nine years until his cup-bearer Anu, the sky, overthrows him; Anu reigns nine years until his cup-bearer Kumarbi, described as the offspring of Alalu, rebels. Kumarbi chases Anu into the sky, drags him down by the feet, and bites off his loins; Anu warns him that he has swallowed the seed of three powerful gods, among them the storm-god. Kumarbi spits out what he can but remains pregnant, and the storm-god is eventually born out of his body. The text is badly broken at this point; it appears that Kumarbi tries to devour the child and is given a stone instead, an episode widely compared with Rhea's stone in Hesiod.
## The plotter
In the later songs Kumarbi, deposed, keeps plotting: he marries the daughter of the Sea and fathers the sea-serpent Hedammu, and he fathers the basalt giant Ullikummi on a great rock, sending both against Teššub. Neither succeeds. He is not presented as simply evil; he is the displaced older king of an older order, and the songs follow his schemes with some sympathy.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Kumarbi.
You Might Also Like
El (Ilu)
The aged king and father of the gods at Ugarit, 'Bull El', 'Father of Years', who presides over the divine assembly from his dwelling at the source of the two rivers and whose permission every younger god seeks.
Cronus
Youngest of the twelve Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia. Cronus castrated his father to seize the sky's rule, presided over the mythical Golden Age, and was in turn overthrown by his own son Zeus after swallowing his children to avoid the same fate.
Alalu
The first king in heaven in the Hurrian Song of Kumarbi, overthrown by his cup-bearer Anu after nine years and driven down to the Dark Earth; Kumarbi is called his offspring.
Hannahanna
The Hittite mother goddess, 'the Grandmother', who when every other god has failed sends a bee to find the missing Telipinu.