Ištanuwa was a town in Bronze Age Anatolia located along the Šaḫiriya river and known to the Hittites as the site of a regional religious festival. Its inhabitants were Luwic speakers. Cultic practices associated with the town are believed to have been antecedents of the same tradition that spawned the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Etymology
The toponym Ištanuwa is named only in the Luwian ritual texts known as the Songs of Ištanuwa and the Songs of the Men of Lallupiya.Mouton, Alice. (2016). “The Festivals of Lallupiya-Ištanuwa:” Liturgie oder Literatur?: 119–132. Web. Woudhuizen regarded it as an Arzawan word that originated before "the infiltration of Thracian and Phrygian population groups"Woudhuizen, F. (2018). The Luwians of Western Anatolia: Their Neighbours and Predecessors. United Kingdom: Archaeopress Publishing Limited. ultimately derived from the Indo-Iranian root istan ("land") and the foreign ethnic designation nuwā-um ("Luwian").Carruba, Onofrio. (1992). Luwier in Kappadokien. La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idÈes dans le Proche-Orient ancien. Ed. D. Charpin and F. JoannËs. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. pp. 251-57. Laroche believed it was a Hittite word that "must be derived from that of the Anatolian Sun deity" Istanu and the nominal stem -waLaroche, Emmanuel. (1975). Toponymes et frontières linguistiques en Asie-Mineure. In: La toponymie antique. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 12–14 June 1975 (= Travaux du Center de recherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grèce antiques. Volume 4). Université des sciences humaines, Strasbourg 1975, pp. 205–217, here 212. so prominent in Taurisan Luwian.Yakubovich. I. (2023). "Chapter 11: Cuneiform Luwian in the Hattuša Archives." Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World, Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti. Brill An alternate spelling of Aštanuwa is found in Assyrian records.Horst Klengel: Ištanuwa. In: Dietz-Otto Edzard (ed.): Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Volume 5, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1976–1980, , p. 210.
Language
The language of Ištanuwa is now understood as a dialect of luwili,Yakubovich, Ilya. (2010). Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Division of the Humanities In Candidacy For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago. Academia.edu perhaps influenced by an unknown Arzawan language. Called ištanumnili by the Hittites, it lacked some of the innovative forms (genitive plural and related adjectives) of luwili and appears to have been regarded as a separate language.
Geography
Ištanuwa was located "in the Luwian-speaking territories west and southwest of Hatti proper,"Neroznak, Vladimir P. (2011). "Philology and etymology, with focus on Anatolian." Reconstructing Languages and Cultures. (2011). Germany: De Gruyter. near the Sakarya RiverMelchart, Craig. (2003). The Luwians. Netherlands: Brill. in classical Phrygia at or near Gordion.Massimo Forlaninni: Toponyme antique d'origine hattie? In: Hittitica, Volume 8, 1987, p. 105–122, here p. 115.
History
There are thirty-six texts dated to the 1500s BC which mention Ištanuwa, all of which contain Hittite descriptions of the men of the town undertaking religious rituals or celebrations and/or the gods of the polity themselves. The opening line of one song - "When they came to steep Wilusa"Starke, Frank. (1985). The Istanuwa texts. In: The same: The cuneiform Luwian texts in transcription Studies on the Boǧazköy Texts, Volume 30. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden has been interpreted to suggest a Luwian counterpart to the Homeric traditions of Ancient Greece,Watkins, Calvert. (1995). How to kill a dragon. Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford: Oxford University Press. where "the Hittites participated in the network of traveling poets who were the ancestors of the poets working in the oral tradition that eventually produced the Illiad."Bachvarova, M. R. (2016). From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Certain rituals have been linked to the subsequent Greek cult of Cybele.Taylor, Patrick. (2008). The GALA and the Gallos. Academic.edu) The town seems to have been a regional cult center, with a local festival lasting several days.Hutter-Braunsar, Sylvia. (2022). The Cult of Ištanuwa (and Lallubiya) between Hattian and Aegean Cultures. Altorientalische Forschungen. 49. 158-168. The appearance of the Hittite great king and queen suggests a corresponding festival at Hattusa attended by the men of Ištanuwa. The religious celebrations included chants in the local dialect as well as specific ritual conduct:
Some of the deities attested for Istanuwa included the grain god Warwaliya, the wine god Winiyanda, the dancing god Tarwaliya, the field god Immaršiya, the trade god Iyašalla, the protective god Runtiya, the plague god Iyarri and the garden goddess Maliya.Hutter, Manfred. (2003)."Aspects in Luwian Religion." In Craig Melchert (ed): The Luwians: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Volume 1.68, pp. 211–280. Brill, Leiden.
The tyoponym Ištanuwa disappeared with the emergence of the Phrygians, either already resident west of the Šaḫiriya river or in the process of immigrating from Thrace and Macedonia.Rutherford, I. (2020). Hittite Texts and Greek Religion: Contact, Interaction, and Comparison. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
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