The land of the Hittites

by John Garstang

The same doubt does not exist, however, in regard to an inscription from Bey-Keui, which is a definite trace of the Hittites in the west. The monument is a dressed block of limestone, dug by Professor Ramsay[382] out of a mound at the entrance to a glen. The hieroglyphs are in relief, and on the portion of the stone preserved were arranged in rows, of which two partly remain. The whole was surrounded by a plain border.[383] From the published copy two or three of the signs may be readily recognised as distinctively Hittite. The position of the monument has thus a great interest amid the paucity of evidence in the west.

Those monuments which tell of the Hittite influence in the extreme west are found on the mountains of Sipylus and Tmolus, not far in either case from Smyrna. The river Hermus before entering the sea flows about a mile distant on the northern side of Mount Sipylus. On the other bank there stretches out a considerable expanse of highly fertile plain. The road and railway pass between the river and the mountain, and from them the famous sculpture may be plainly seen. It is several hundred feet up the slope, involving a sharp climb up the accumulated débris and soil at the foot of the cliff. Above, the cliffs rise sheer and almost precipitous.[384]

The monument occupies a recess specially prepared, about forty feet in height, while the figure itself is over thirty feet high. This gigantic sculpture, perhaps on account of its accessibility, has been more noticed in writings, ancient and modern, than any other. Its present condition,[385] however, leaves us no chance of forming any new opinion as to its original meaning and character. Fortunately on both points there remains little doubt, in spite of a considerable controversy, which is, however, now no longer of interest. As to its meaning, we are guided by the studied words of Pausanias,[386] read in the light of modern information, to believe that it was a rock image of the Mother-goddess; and as to its character, we may see in its present weathered state the indications of a sculpture in very high relief, almost indeed in the round, though not disengaged from the rock, which once represented a female seated, with her feet presumably upon a stool. The head of the figure is seemingly inclined forward, and the form of the female bust may still be recognised. Those who previously may have thought the carving to represent a bust upon a pedestal were deceived by its present appearance, for certain hieroglyphs[387] in the recess near the head attest its Hittite origin: the motive of bust and pedestal finds no place in the category of Hittite art, while the seated figure of the Mother-goddess has its counterpart in the Hittite sculptures at Eyuk[388] and Fraktin.[389] The inscription in question is very fragmentary, though certain characteristic symbols can be recognised, notably the tip-tilted shoe and the horned (ram’s) head. ‘It contains,’ writes Professor Sayce, ‘the name of the Mother-goddess, with her title “Queen of the Rock,” all of which signs recur in an inscription from Emir-Ghazi.’[390]

PLATE LIII

MT. SIPYLUS: GIANT IMAGE OF THE MOTHER-GODDESS

It would seem that classical writers, following generally in the footsteps of Homer, confounded this image with another object, a natural rock on the same mountain, which tradition associated with Niobe, and would seem indeed to have conveyed a suggestion of her weeping form. Thus Homer[391] sings that ‘Niobe, turned to stone, upon arid Sipylus broods o’er her sorrows’; and so again Ovid:[392] ‘Fastened to the rock she weeps, and the marble sheds tears.’ Fortunately Pausanias, himself probably a native of this country, ascertained the facts and showed how the confusion had arisen. ‘This Niobe,’ he says,[393] ‘I myself saw when I ascended Mount Sipylus; close at hand it is merely a rock and a cliff, with no resemblance to a woman, mourning or otherwise; but if you stand farther off, you will think you see a weeping woman bowed with grief.’ This is clearly the Niobe of Homer, Ovid, and Sophocles, and clearly also the smoothed appearance of the rock above the image of the Mother-goddess (which is not, it seems, due at all to the action of the water), was one of the reasons accounting for the confusion. As to the identity of the image, Pausanias leaves us in no doubt where he says,[394] ‘Here (at Aeriae) there is a temple of the Mother of the Gods, with a stone image of her: both are worth seeing. The people of Aeriae say that it is the most ancient sanctuary of this goddess in the Peloponnese. The oldest of all her images,[395] however, is on the rock of Coddinus at Magnesia, to the north of Sipylus: the Magnesians say it was made by Broteas, son of Tantalus.’ Finally the same writer makes his distinction apparent by showing that he was aware of the passage in Homer referring to the story of Niobe.[396]

As in other cases, we do not dwell upon the religious symbolism of the monument. That the Mother-goddess (Ma) was the prototype of Kybele remains undisputed, and all that is of interest in the cult of the great Phrygian goddess has been pointed out by Sir William Ramsay[397] and others. But the attributes of the goddess in the minds of the Hittites remain indefinite, and are to be inferred from the rites represented with her at Boghaz-Keui, Eyuk, and Fraktin, from the ritual described by Strabo and Herodotus, as surviving at Comana, Tyana, Pessinus, and elsewhere, and from the inherited attributes of Kybele herself.[398]

The other Hittite monuments of the west on the pass of Kara-Bel are comparatively near at hand. A stream which feeds the Hermus, flowing around the foot of Mount Sipylus on the east, comes down from the valley which separates that mountain on the south from the opposite slopes of Olympus. The bed of another small tributary leads up these southern slopes to a narrow wooded glen upon the ridge, in which are the sources of the Kara Su. Through this glen there passes a track, now not much used, connecting Ephesus to the south with Sardis or Smyrna by the northern valley. About seventy feet above this track, in the perpendicular face of the cliff, a niche of rock encloses a sculpture in relief. The niche is about six feet wide at the base and nine feet high, being considerably narrower at the top.[399] The figure within is that of a warrior, similar to those of Giaour-Kalesi, and resembling the god-figures at Boghaz-Keui. He stands facing to his left, his left leg and arm advanced, and his shoulders squared to the observer. He wears a short tunic and short-sleeved vest and high boots, which in some early drawings are shown as turning up at the toes.[400] The conical Hittite hat completes his costume. A triangular-shaped bow is carried over his right shoulder, and his extended left hand seems to grasp a long staff or spear.[401] The sculpture, being on the east side of the ravine, is turned towards Ephesus. There is another similar sculpture on a detached block of stone some two hundred and fifty yards farther up the pass. This stone seems to have fallen from the rocks above, and it now lies on the west side near the stream, about twelve yards below the level of the path. As it lies the sculptured face is towards the east, and the figure being turned as in the former case, towards the left, looks to the north. It is probable, however, from the similarity of the two subjects, that they originally looked in the same direction.

It is curious that there is no mention of these sculptures by Pausanias. Herodotus, however, describes them as images of Sesostris,[402] ‘the one on the way from Ephesus to Phocaea, the other from Sardis to Smyrna. In both places a man is carved, four and a half cubits high, bearing a spear in his right hand, and in his left a bow; and the rest of his equipment is in unison, for it is partly Egyptian and partly Ethiopian. From one shoulder to the other there extend across the breast sacred Egyptian characters, incised, which read as follows: “I acquired this region by my own shoulders.” Who or whence he is he does not here show.’ It is clear that Herodotus was writing from hearsay: there is just enough general accuracy in his account to identify the monuments, and enough discrepancy to make it apparent that he had not visited them himself. The details as to position we have already noticed; and Professor Sayce has shown[403] that the inscription, so far from being across the breast of the figure and in Egyptian characters, is found in the characteristic place, between the spear and the head of the figure, and consists of a group of Hittite hieroglyphs, in which certain symbols can be recognised. On the fallen block no trace of inscription remains, as the sculpture has suffered mutilation; in fact, a Yuruk’s tent was at one time pitched against it, and the niche used as a fireplace. But sufficient remains to make it demonstrable that no Egyptian inscription ran across the breast. We can hardly hesitate to identify this figure with one of the two forms of the Hittite national deity, and if the suggested absence of beard be a guide, he will be in this case the son-god of Boghaz-Keui, the Sandon of Tarsus, the prototype of Attis the consort of Kybele. We are inclined to see him here, as at Giaour-Kalesi, in the aspect of a God of Arms. We may notice once more, and ask, as in a previous case, whether it can be mere coincidence that the only Hittite monuments surviving in the extreme west are representations of the Mother-goddess and of the chief male deity of the Hittite peoples.