An outline of the divine character of Reshef

4.4.2.1. An outline of the divine character of Reshef

The name of the Canaanite deity worshipped in the Syro-Palestinian region in the Bronze and Iron Age first appeared among the names of gods on clay tablets from Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh) (Rašap) in the Third Millennium B.C., where he is mentioned as the god of the Canaanite cities of Atanni, Gunu, Tunip, and Sekhem.⁷⁷⁷ Considered one of the chief deities of Ebla, the significance of Reshef is shown by the fact that, besides the temple dedicated to him in the city, one of the four city gates also bore his name. Although the names of the city gates are known (Dagan, Hadda, Rasap, Utu), it is uncertain which gate belonged to which deity.⁷⁷⁸ The Eblaite mythological texts identify Reshef with Nergal, the chief god of the Mesopotamian underworld, which reinforces the chthonic and warrior features of Reshef’s character. The Ebla 215 text describes the similarities between Nergal and Reshef, so further identification is based on the etymological comparison between Reshef with Nergal in the Eblaite texts.⁷⁷⁹ The texts name Adamma as his consort, the goddess of fertility and fertile land with Hurrian origins, interpreted in Eblaite sources as magna mater.⁷⁸⁰

776 For the object and the related references, see Cornelius 1994: 232–233, no. BB1

777 For the epigraphic sources, see Münnich 2013: 48–56.

778 Feliu 2003: 8.

779 Münnich 2013: 58–64.

780 On the etymological background of the relationship between Reshef and the Anatolian goddess Adamma, see Lipiński 2009: 51–64.

139 In the Second Millennium, the name of Reshef appears as a theophoric element in personal names from the major cities of Ur III,⁷⁸¹ Mari, Terqa and Tuttul in the central Euphrates region.⁷⁸²

Beside Ba’al, Reshef (Ršp) also plays a prominent role in the Ugaritic pantheon in the Second Millennium, and his name is mentioned in a range of written sources, from religious texts through incantations to theophoric elements in personal names. The Ugaritic ritual texts often equate him with Nergal, and the possible etymological connection in the Akkadian texts is based on the bilingual Karatepe inscription (KAI 26)⁷⁸³ dated to the 8th century B.C., which is based on the Hittite transcription rather than the Akkadian practice. The possible etymological connection is based on the relation of the ^dKAL logogram = ^dLAMMA = lamassu = Nubadig (an Anatolian protective deity) = Reshef (ršp sprm) in the Ugaritic Akkadian texts.⁷⁸⁴

Appearing in the Ugaritic literature as essentially an epidemic god and divine warrior, Reshef is described using a variety of adjectives in religious and administrative texts, which further sharpens the complex character of the deity and his cult, as reflected in his epithets (ršp gn, ršp ḥṣ, ršp mlk, ršp ḥgb, ršp ṣb'i).

The epithet ršp gn (gú-nu/núm^ki) refers to the cult of the deity, and more narrowly to the name of a specific cultic place connected to the city (presumably with a special function), which already appears in Eblaite texts.⁷⁸⁵

The relationship between the epithet ršp ḥṣ and Reshef, which also appears in the inscription Karatepe (KAI 32:4), can be traced back to Kition in Cyprus. This is established on the basis of a Phoenician inscription dated 431 B.C., in which the Ugaritic Reshef (ršp ḥṣ, “Reshef of the Arrow”, RS 19.13.5) was identified with Apollo (interpretatio graeca). Based on both meanings of ḥṣ (ḥēṣ = “arrow”, ḥūṣ = “street”), it can be related to Apollo (and through this analogy to Reshef, as identified with him). The divine archer (Iliad I 43-87), who appears as the protector of the streets, Apollo also carries the well-known classical epithet of “The Apollo of the Street”.⁷⁸⁶ According to Ugaritic sources, the third meaning of ḥṣ (ḥēṣ = ‘luck’) raises the possibility that the arrowheads, bearing the Phoenician ḥṣ (‘arrowhead’) inscription from Phoenicia and Palestine, are utensils of belomancy, a popular magic-based prognostication technique in ancient Near Eastern cultures, which used arrowsheads as the tool of divination.⁷⁸⁷

781 Xella 1999: 701.

782 For the onomastics of personal names of Mari, Terqa and Tuttul, see Münnich 2013: 73–78.

783 For the inscription, see Hawkins – Halet 1999: 122.

784 Barré 1978: 465–467.

785 Münnich 2013: 51–54.

786 Lipiński 2009: 104–105.

787 Iwry 1961: 27–34.

140 The local presence of Reshef is indicated by the ephitet ršp mlk (“Mulukku Reshef”, RS 24.249.B.7-8), which was mentioned among the rituals to be performed in the month of Ḫiyyar (April/May), with the presentation of a bull and a ram as animals of sacrifice for the deity.⁷⁸⁸ The epithet ršp ḥgb (“Reshef, the Gatekeeper”, RS 19.13) appears in a text describing a sacrifice prescribed to the ruler in the offering ritual, which refers to the chthonic character of Reshef and indicates his role in the royal cult.⁷⁸⁹

The epithet ršp ṣb’i (“Reshef of the Army”, RS 19.15) is mentioned in the list of ceremonies performed by the king of Ugarit, describing a ritual with the presentation of a sacrifice offered for peace.⁷⁹⁰

As a divine warrior, Reshef is also involved in cosmogonic struggles. The basic conflict in the Ugaritic Ba’al Cycle, in which Ba’al defeats Yam, can also be regarded as a cosmogonic struggle, where Reshef fights on the side of Ba’al against primeval forces. The conflict can be seen as a mythological foreshadowing of the cosmogonic struggle reflected in the background of the biblical poem Habakkuk 3:5 in the Old Testament.⁷⁹¹

During the First Millennium B.C. his popularity was widespread in the Phoenician world.⁷⁹² Traces of his cult can be found in Cyprus (ršp mkl), which served as a major cult centre, where Reshef was identified with Apollo.⁷⁹³ Well-known in the Mediterranean, Reshef reached the western part of the Mediterranean Sea as far as the Iberian Peninsula, and then gradually lost popularity during the Punic period, although he survived until the Greek era.⁷⁹⁴

The intensive military expansion of the 18th Dynasty and the consequent economic and military agreements with the prominent state formations of the Late Bronze Age (Ugarit, Mitanni, Hittite Empire) increased Egypt’s influence in the Canaanite region. This bi-directional process of cultural and economic relations also resulted in the import of various foreign deities and their cults, probably via Hyksos mediation, through which Reshef was introduced into Egypt.⁷⁹⁵ The image of Reshef (ršpw) depicted with military attributes appeared during the reign of Amenhotep II, due to his conquest of Syria.⁷⁹⁶

788 Lipiński 2009: 90.

789 Lipiński 2009: 100–103.

790 Münnich 2013: 131–132.

791 Day, J. 1979: 353–355.

792 For the relationship between the seated god of the Syro-Palestinian city of Beth-Shean, mkl (Mekal, Mikal) represented in the Mekal stela and Reshef, see Levy 2018: 370–371.

793 Dietrich 1978: 1–18.

794 Ulanowski 2013: 157–163.

795 Zivie-Coche 2011: 1−3.

796 The Sphinx Stela from Giza from the early period of Amenhotep's reign (1425–1399 BC) presents Reshef depicted as a war god in the company of an another war goddess, Astarte related to horses and warfare, see Fulco 1976: 3, E3

141 His militant character is represented in royal inscriptions, stelae and reliefs, and essentially he is related to war, chariots and horses,⁷⁹⁷ all fundamental features of warfare in the royal narrative of New Kingdom Egypt.⁷⁹⁸ Based on a similar character, Reshef was also syncretized with the falcon-headed Egyptian war god Montu. The result of syncretism is a figure on a chariot with an attached quiver, visible on a heavily damaged relief on the Northeast Wall of the heḅ-sed pavilion (G 235) of Amenhotep II in the temple complex of Amun in Karnak, which according to the inscription depicts the deity Montu-Reshef ([m] nṯw-ršp). An inscription from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, reporting on the fifth year of his reign about his military success over the Libyans, mentions the names of Reshef and Montu in the same military context.⁷⁹⁹

Inscriptions on private stelae dedicated to the honour of the war god, meanwhile, refer to health, prosperity and prophylactic aspects, indicating a different function of Reshef and presenting him with another face, which contrasts with the martial character reflected in royal narratives. While the interpretation of his role was expanded with a new metaphorical aspect of warfare (“the fight against disease”), the iconographic model of the armed war god fighting the enemy remained unchanged.⁸⁰⁰ In the Canaanite religion, the ambivalent properties of Reshef, originally linked to epidemics and diseases and, by association, to the sphere of the underworld, also endowed him with a protective and apotropaic function against diseases. In the Leiden Magical Papyrus, Reshef appears as a healing god against disease demons,⁸⁰¹ to which his main epithets also refer. According to Alan Schulman, the Egyptian stelae depicting the figure of Reshef are interpreted as a cult image and can be divided into four main groups based on the related epithets of the deity⁸⁰²:

1. “Reshef, who winds about”/“Reshef when he multiplies”⁸⁰³ 2. “Reshef, who hears prayers”

3. “Reshef, who gives a happy life”

4. “Reshef, (lord) of the feathered missiles”

To emphasize his relation to fertility and prosperity, the Egyptian triad stelae show Reshef accompanied by the popular Canaanite fertility goddess, Qudshu, and the Egyptian ithyphallic

797 Schulman 1977: 13−17

798 Helck 1971: 485−487.

799 Münnich 2013: 81, 94.

800 Münnich 2009: 60−61.

801 Stadelmann 1967: 73.

802 Schulman 1981: 157–166.

803 Cornelius accepted Wolfgang Helck’s interpretation on the translation of the epitheton as “Reshef when he multiplies”. For the related references on different translations and interpretations of the epitheton (ršpw qƷb.f), see Cornelius 1994: 33, footnote 2.

142 Min.⁸⁰⁴ Presumably due to his positive attributes, the number of pictorial representations of him that have survived on objects from Egypt far exceeds that of other Western Asiatic deities, showing that Reshef achieved a prominent status among the foreign deities in the Nile Valley.

At present, there are a total of forty stelae bearing representations of Reshef originating from the Egyptian region in the New Kingdom period, while no parallels are known from Syro-Palestine. However, based on the presence of the shield, considered an identifying element, a small number of objects from Ugarit might represent Reshef.⁸⁰⁵

Judging from the large number of private stelae erected by common people⁸⁰⁶ from the ethnically and religiously mixed nuclear society in the village of Deir el-Medina,⁸⁰⁷ as well as amulets⁸⁰⁸ bearing his name or image, the cult of the imported Canaanite god became highly popular, especially within the lower strata of Egyptian society, among a wide range of common people (artisans, soldiers and craftsmen). The tradition of his cult survived the decline of the New Kingdom and the Ramessides, and traces can be found in the Late Period as well as during the Greco-Roman Period, during reign of the Ptolemaids. The largest and best-known three-dimensional artwork is the limestone statue depicting the smiting Reshef wearing the White Crown (ḥdt) decorated with a gazelle’s head on the forehead, a false beard, a short kilt, and a small shield, primarily dated to the reign of the 20th–24th Dynasty in the Late Period. The end of the weapon raised high in his right hand is missing, so identification is uncertain.⁸⁰⁹