The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East, pp. 831-847, 2023/04/12
Proceedings of the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale and the 12th Melammu Symposium, University of Innsbruck, July 16‒20, 2018
Hymns of praise provide an interesting case study to examine the reception of intellectual heritage from Mesopotamia in Hittite Anatolia and the relative success and failure thereof. Whereas in Babylonian and Assyrian literature hymns praising a deity occur in many different text genres and almost seem to be omnipresent, in Hittite Anatolia they do not have such a prominent place. This paper examines the reception of Mesopotamian hymns in Hittite literature by establishing the chronological development of the hymn in Hittite literature, from its emergence to its downfall. It is argued that the hymn was initially foreign to the Hittites and that after a period of relative success, the originally Mesopotamian hymn was not very successful in Hittite Anatolia.
