ABSTRACT
New IZingdom were known for their syncretistic policies which incorporated the deities of conquered territories into the official pantheon rather than repressing indigenous worship. They were self-styled as "people of the thousand gods," and indeed, it seems they never met a diety they didn't like, which resulted in a cultic calendar so ridiculously full that wars had to be interrupted so that the Icing could perform his assorted ritual duties. Hence, Pudul].epa's syncretism takes place against a background of easy tolerance and official approval. While it is not too far a "stretch" to identify Ijebat with the Sungoddess of Arinna since they are both understood as consorts of the Weather-god of IJatti and mothers of the divine son, the Weather-god of Nerik (the Hurrian Sarruma), the immediate coherence between these mother figures and the battle-ready Istar, the Weather-god's sister, is not so readily apparent. Politically, it was important that the official head of the Hittite pantheon, the Sun-goddess of Arinna, accept IjIattusili, the favorite of Istar, as an acceptable if irregular Icing. Pudul].epa's syncretism allows this by identifying the goddess who brought her husband to power with the goddess who sustains and authorizes Hittite lcingship.47 But the Queen's consolidation of these divine females moves beyond simple pragmatic politics into the realm offaith-could the power that moved her from her home into an unknown land actually be any different from the loving power she knew as a child and continued to experience as queen? Pudul].epa's Hurrian roots have been posited as an explanation of the marked Hurrian-Hittite theological syncretism during Ijattusili's reign, though the beginning of this trend can be traced back further. However, it is to the common condition of women that we must turn for the deeper psychological motivation behind the politics. Like the royal daughters ofSumer and Mari, Pudul].epa probably had very little choice in her marriage partner or place of residence. Dedicated to IJebat by her very name, it is scarcely possible that a woman of faith would leave her native deities behind, and highly probable that she would identify the divine figures with whom she was familiar with those who populated her new world. Where women are moved and traded like game-pieces on the board of political hegemony, they cannot afford inflexible deities bound to a given location. The goddesses a woman worshiped had to be thealogically "portable" if they were to be of any use to the devotee-a goddess only effective in the "Cedar Land" was of limited value to the Queen in IJattusa. As Pudul].epa grew, changed residence, and social rank, her understanding ofher goddess grew and traveled along with her. She can speak ofherself as "a heifer from thy stable," a "foundation stone (upon which) thou (canst rest)," both metaphors which conjure up images ofservice, dedication, and long-term intimacy. Later in her prayer Pudul].epa goes on to draw parallels between the motherhood of the Sun-goddess and her own travail over Ijattusili's illness. In a culture obsessed by ritual purity, Pudul].epa can speak to her divine helper, using images drawn from the world of women, from the time when a woman's body is presented in all its primal "otherliness" and potential impurity, and be guaranteed a positive hearing not in spite of her sex but because ofit) since this gender marlcing is shared with the goddess. A reader of the biblical book of Leviticus can conceive of such a relationship between women and the exclusive male god of ancient Israel only with the greatest of difficulty, though to be sure, the female characters of the Bible are often presented as relating their birth-giving activities in some way to that same god they are not allowed to approach.48
