Apaliunas

Apaliunas is a theonym, attested in a Hittite language treaty as a tutelary of Wilusa. Apaliunas is considered to be the Hittite reflex of *Apeljōn, an early form of the name Apollo, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων.[1]

Apaliunas is among the gods who guarantee a treaty drawn up about 1280 BCE between Alaksandu of Wilusa, interpreted as "Alexander of Ilios" and the great Hittite king,[2] Muwatalli II. He is one of the three deities named on the side of the city. In Homer, Apollo is the builder of the walls of Ilium, a god on the Trojan side. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo "The One of Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter".[3]

Further east of the Luwian language area, a Hurrian god Aplu was a deity of the plague – bringing it, or, if propitiated, protecting from it – and resembles Apollo Smintheus, "mouse-Apollo"[4] worshiped at Troy and Tenedos, who brought plague upon the Achaeans in answer to a Trojan prayer at the opening of Iliad.[5] Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian Aplu Enlil, meaning "the son of Enlil", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash, Babylonian god of the Sun,[6] and with the plague.

References

  1. ↑ John L. Angel; Machteld Johanna Mellink (1986). Troy and the Trojan War: A Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984. Bryn Mawr Commentaries. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-929524-59-7.
  2. ↑ Latacz 2001:138.
  3. ↑ Sara Anderson Immerwahr; Anne Proctor. Chapin (2004). Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr. Amer School of Classical. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-87661-533-1.
  4. ↑ "smintheus" (Perseus.tufts) σμινθεύς
  5. ↑ "You Apollo Smintheus, let my tears become your arrows against the Danaans, for revenge". Homer, Iliad, i. 33-39
  6. ↑ de Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006) Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology); Mackenzie, Donald A. (2005) Myths of Babylonia and Assyria (Gutenberg)

Sources