Tawagalawa letter

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The Tawagalawa letter (CTH 181) was written by a Hittite king (generally accepted as Hattusili III) to a king of Ahhiyawa around 1250 BC. This letter, of which only the third tablet has been preserved, concerns the activities of an adventurer Piyama-Radu against the Hittites, and requests his extradition to Hatti under assurances of safe conduct. It is so named because it mentions a brother of the king of Ahhiyawa named Tawagalawa - a name that has been connected with the Greek name *Etewoklewes, Eteocles, hence its fame. Note that, according to Greek Mythology, the Achaean (Ahhiyawan) King addressed in this letter would be Polynices, brother of Eteocles (the usurper-king of Thebes).

Originally translators thought that the beginning of this letter concerned the activities of Tawagalawa. Itamar Singer corrected this misunderstanding, relegating Tawagalawa to a minor role in the letter. The letter would be more appropriately known as the "Piyama-Radu letter".

Piyama-Radu is further mentioned in the Manapa-Tarhunta letter (c. 1295 BCE) and, in the past tense, in the Milawata letter (c. 1240 BCE). The Tawagalawa letter further mentions Miletus (as "Millawanda") and its dependent city Atriya, as does the Milawata letter; and its governor Atpa, as does the Manapa-Tarhunta letter (although that letter does not state Atpa's fiefdom).

The letter bears a conversational style which has commonly been associated with Hattusili III (1265-1235 BCE). However Oliver Gurney in "The authorship of the Tawagalawas Letter" (Silva Anatolica, 2002, 133-41) argues that the letter belongs to his older brother Muwatalli II (1295-1272 BCE). But if the Milawata letter postdates this letter, and if that letter is taken as a letter of Mursili II (1322-1295 BCE), then the Tawagalawa letter might belong to Mursili in the late 1300s BC, but after the end of his annals.

In this letter, the Hittite king refers to former hostilities between the Hittites and the Ahhiyawans over Wilusa, which had now been resolved amicably:

"Now as we have come to an agreement on Wilusa over which we went to war..."