THE FLEECE AS
HITTITE SACRED SACK
The peoples of ancient Anatolia worshiped, it was said, a kursa, a sacred skin, that was fashioned into a bag and served as as symbol of the deity. This sacred sack could be made of ox, sheep, or goat hide. The kursa was filled with objects signifying abundance, including fertility symbols. Some special kursas were covered with copper or bronze appliques, while others were made of cloth. Hittite Myth: Telipinu took account of the king. Before Telipinu there stands an eyan-tree (or pole). From the eyan is suspended a hunting bag (made from the skin) of a sheep. In (the bag) lies Sheep Fat. In it lie (symbols) of Animal fecundity and of Wine. In it lie (symbols of) Cattle and Sheep. In it lie Longevity and Progeny. In it lies The Gentle Message of the Lamb. In it lie… and…In it lies…In it lies The Right Shank. In it lie Plenty, Abundance, and Satiety. (trans. H. A. Hoffner, Jr.) Source: Jan N. Bremmer, Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill, 2008), ch. XV. |
According to the Hittite Etymological Dictionary (1997), the word kursa referred specifically to "skin" as opposed to "fleece" but could be connected to the talismanic power of sheepskin as evidenced by Golden Fleece myths (s.v. kursa).
Some believe that originally the kursa was itself worshiped as a god, while others maintain that the kursa was the symbol of one or more deities. By the Hittite period, the kursa was seen as the hunting bag of a deity such as the weather god (Tarhun/Teshub) or the war god. (One kursa was hung in the war god's temple, just as the Fleece sometimes was said to hang in the temple of Ares/Mars.) It became the centerpiece of the New Year's festival known as purulli. In this festival, the story of Teshub's battle with the dragon was recited, and a sacred marriage between stand-ins for Teshub and his wife was performed in the presence of the kursa.
Some believe that originally the kursa was itself worshiped as a god, while others maintain that the kursa was the symbol of one or more deities. By the Hittite period, the kursa was seen as the hunting bag of a deity such as the weather god (Tarhun/Teshub) or the war god. (One kursa was hung in the war god's temple, just as the Fleece sometimes was said to hang in the temple of Ares/Mars.) It became the centerpiece of the New Year's festival known as purulli. In this festival, the story of Teshub's battle with the dragon was recited, and a sacred marriage between stand-ins for Teshub and his wife was performed in the presence of the kursa.
Compare this description of a Hittite religious rite from the Hittite texts with Phrixus' action in Colchis:
They bring the bag [kursa] and hang it in the palace.
Source: Jaan Puhvel, Hittite Etymological Dictionary, vol. IV (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), s.v. kursa.
But Phrixus was conveyed to Colchis; where, as his mother had ordered, he sacrificed the ram and set up in the temple of Mars its fleece.
Source: Hyginus, Fabulae 3
Phryxus landing safe in Colchis, by the command of the oracle sacrificed the ram, and hung up its skin in the temple of Mars.
Source: Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, 4.3
They bring the bag [kursa] and hang it in the palace.
Source: Jaan Puhvel, Hittite Etymological Dictionary, vol. IV (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), s.v. kursa.
But Phrixus was conveyed to Colchis; where, as his mother had ordered, he sacrificed the ram and set up in the temple of Mars its fleece.
Source: Hyginus, Fabulae 3
Phryxus landing safe in Colchis, by the command of the oracle sacrificed the ram, and hung up its skin in the temple of Mars.
Source: Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, 4.3
Some believe that the concept of a sacred skin hung up for protection and display continued in Asia Minor down to the time of the Greeks. The evidence for this is a passage from Herodotus in which he describes a flayed skin hanging in Phrygia:
Herodotus, The Histories 7.26
Then after they had crossed the river Halys and had entered Phrygia, marching through this land they came to Kelainai, where the springs of the river Maiander come up, and also those of another river not less than the Maiander, whose name is Catarractes; this rises in the market-place itself of Kelainai and runs into the Maiander: and here also is hanging up in the city the skin of Marsyas the Silenos, which is said by the Phrygians to have been flayed off and hung up by Apollo. (Trans. G. C. Macaulay, 1890)
This passage parallels the rationalizing claims that the Golden Fleece was the strung up hide of a man named Ram.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 4.3
But that the school-master whose name was Crius, was sacrificed to the gods, and his skin, according to the custom, was fastened to the walls of the temple.
Herodotus, The Histories 7.26
Then after they had crossed the river Halys and had entered Phrygia, marching through this land they came to Kelainai, where the springs of the river Maiander come up, and also those of another river not less than the Maiander, whose name is Catarractes; this rises in the market-place itself of Kelainai and runs into the Maiander: and here also is hanging up in the city the skin of Marsyas the Silenos, which is said by the Phrygians to have been flayed off and hung up by Apollo. (Trans. G. C. Macaulay, 1890)
This passage parallels the rationalizing claims that the Golden Fleece was the strung up hide of a man named Ram.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 4.3
But that the school-master whose name was Crius, was sacrificed to the gods, and his skin, according to the custom, was fastened to the walls of the temple.
The connection between the fleece and the kursa was made as early as 1930, when an article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society suggested:
The "sheep-skin" or "fleece" is an echo of the golden fleece of Greek mythology which hung from a tree in Colchis. Perhaps the "gold" had its origin in the resemblance of the Hittite word kursas and the Greek word χρυσός.
Source: A. H. Sayce, "The Legend of Telibinus," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series) 62, no. 2 (1930): 317.
In 1975 Volkert Hass proposed that the purulli festival and the kursa sack were the origin of Jason's adventures in Colchis and the Golden Fleece, respectively. In this reading, the kursa is the Fleece, the dragon is of course the dragon, Teshub is Zeus, his daughter Inara is Medea, and her human helper is Jason. The scholar of religion Jan M. Bremmer endorsed recently endorsed this opinion, and it is currently the most accepted explanation for the Golden Fleece. However, Walter Burkert cautioned in his 1979 book Structure and History in Greek Myth and Ritual that while there are "suggestive parallels, it turns out to be impossible to integrate the Hittite and Greek tales into one [functional] sequence" (University of California Press, p. 10).
While there are clear and compelling similarities, there are also key differences:
It is also important to note that the concept of sacred fleeces was not unique to the Hittites (or the Golden Fleece) and has deep pre-Greek roots. Such sacred fleeces were used at Eleusis in the rite of purification (in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it is a "shining white fleece" or "silver fleece."), in the rites of Zeus Acraeus at Mount Pelion near Iolcus (!), in the incubation rites of prophecy, and in the purifying fleece of Zeus Meilichios, the subterranean manifestation of the Olympian god. Outside Greece, fleeces were used in the rites of Aphrodite/Astarte on Cyprus and in the Lupercalia and Mamurlia at Rome, as well as in healing magic in Babylon. It is quite possible that both the Greeks and Hittites were drawing on earlier traditions of the sacred language used to describe divine fleeces.
Another complication, as Jan Bremmer noted, is that the Golden Fleece of the Phrixus myth may not be identical with the Golden Fleece of the Jason myth. The two stories may have merged at some point in the telling, meaning that the one myth may have been influenced by the Hittite kursa while the other may have originated from a different stock.
The "sheep-skin" or "fleece" is an echo of the golden fleece of Greek mythology which hung from a tree in Colchis. Perhaps the "gold" had its origin in the resemblance of the Hittite word kursas and the Greek word χρυσός.
Source: A. H. Sayce, "The Legend of Telibinus," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series) 62, no. 2 (1930): 317.
In 1975 Volkert Hass proposed that the purulli festival and the kursa sack were the origin of Jason's adventures in Colchis and the Golden Fleece, respectively. In this reading, the kursa is the Fleece, the dragon is of course the dragon, Teshub is Zeus, his daughter Inara is Medea, and her human helper is Jason. The scholar of religion Jan M. Bremmer endorsed recently endorsed this opinion, and it is currently the most accepted explanation for the Golden Fleece. However, Walter Burkert cautioned in his 1979 book Structure and History in Greek Myth and Ritual that while there are "suggestive parallels, it turns out to be impossible to integrate the Hittite and Greek tales into one [functional] sequence" (University of California Press, p. 10).
While there are clear and compelling similarities, there are also key differences:
- The kursa is not necessarily (or even usually) a ram's fleece.
- The kursa is not golden.
- The kursa is a container while the Golden Fleece is not.
- The Hittite myth of Teshub and the dragon (the supposed model for Jason) does not feature a kursa.
It is also important to note that the concept of sacred fleeces was not unique to the Hittites (or the Golden Fleece) and has deep pre-Greek roots. Such sacred fleeces were used at Eleusis in the rite of purification (in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it is a "shining white fleece" or "silver fleece."), in the rites of Zeus Acraeus at Mount Pelion near Iolcus (!), in the incubation rites of prophecy, and in the purifying fleece of Zeus Meilichios, the subterranean manifestation of the Olympian god. Outside Greece, fleeces were used in the rites of Aphrodite/Astarte on Cyprus and in the Lupercalia and Mamurlia at Rome, as well as in healing magic in Babylon. It is quite possible that both the Greeks and Hittites were drawing on earlier traditions of the sacred language used to describe divine fleeces.
Another complication, as Jan Bremmer noted, is that the Golden Fleece of the Phrixus myth may not be identical with the Golden Fleece of the Jason myth. The two stories may have merged at some point in the telling, meaning that the one myth may have been influenced by the Hittite kursa while the other may have originated from a different stock.