Illness of Emperor Hattusilis
“Nebuchednezzar Syndrome”:
dreams, illness-madness, Egyptophobia
Part Six:
Illness of Emperor Hattusilis
by
Damien F. Mackey
“… Hattusilis fell dangerously ill, and because of his feeble health
he was thought to be doomed”.
Dr. I. Velikovsky
Hattusilis (so-called III), with whom Dr. I. Velikovsky had identified King Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’ in Ramses II and His Time (1978), had likewise suffered a debilitating illness early in his life (career).
In his Chapter 5 “The Autobiography of Nebuchadnezzar” (Climbing the Throne), Velikovsky wrote:
The autobiographical record of Hattusilis was prepared to be kept in a temple of Ishtar. It is a confession and justification of his behavior in coveting the imperial crown. The autobiography … covers the period of his life from childhood to his accession to the throne of the empire.
When a child, Hattusilis fell dangerously ill, and because of his feeble health he was thought to be doomed. His brother dreamed a dream in which Ishtar appeared and advised his father:
The years which remain for Hattusil are only few. His health is poor. Give him to me: he shall be my priest, and he will return to health.
His father heeded the advice and gave “the small boy to the goddess in divine service.” He grew up as a priest in the temple of Ishtar.
Already the beginning of the autobiography casts light on four or five facts we know about Nebuchadnezzar. All through his life he had a feeble constitution and the appearance of a dwarf. In the talmudic tradition he is called Nebuchadnezzar the Dwarf (“nanas”). ….
His childhood, spent in a temple, must have been responsible for Nebuchadnezzar’s ecstatic religious character, which is clearly mirrored in his building inscriptions. All his life he called himself priest.
Nebuchadnezzar, the novice in the temple of Ishtar, remained her worshiper as king. When building Babylon he erected or restored and rebuilt the famous Gate of Ishtar, excavated at the site of the old Babylon. …. “I built the gate of Ishtar of blue glazed bricks.” …. He also built and repaired many temples of Ishtar and memorialized his acts for future generations in his building inscriptions. “I rebuilt ... Eanna, temple of Ishtar in Erech.” …. He called himself “regardful of the sacred places of Ninib and Ishtar.” ….
[End of quotes]
Here, in this description of the emperor’s dire illness, we can discern various likenesses to the case of King Nebuchednezzar’s sickness as recounted in the Book of Daniel chapter 4: extremely poor health at an early stage; a dream interpreted; promise of return to health; divine terms to be fulfilled.
It is thought that the famous wife of Hattusilis, Pudukhepa, had to fill in for her husband when he was ill, for, according to the following account, Hattusilis “was frequently sick”:
Puduhepa is the Hittite queen we know the most about since she corresponded with Ramesses II, the Pharoah of Egypt, and she made religious declarations, treaties, and judicial decisions which were recorded by scribes. Puduhepa was the wife of Hattusili III. Before her marriage she was a priestess, “a handmaiden of Ishtar.” She was said to be very beautiful, and Hattusili tells us he married her following a vision he had in a dream. Many years into their marriage, Hattusili wrote that the goddess Ishtar blessed them with “the love of husband and wife” (Apology of Hattusili). Hattusili was frequently sick, and he depended on his strong-willed, highly intelligent wife to help him run the vast Hittite empire (Bryce, 13).
He shows every sign of trusting her completely. We do not know if other queens, with less commanding personalities, had quite as much lee-way. Probably not, but they had great independence nonetheless.
….
Hittite queens regularly shared seals with their husbands, giving them the right to “sign” official documents and independently conduct the business of the realm. Puduhepa had her own seal. In fact, the stamp seal of Queen Puduhepa can be seen today in the Corum Museum, Turkey. Much as Puduhepa stands out as a distinctive woman, however, she could not have been treated with respect by the Egyptian pharoah [sic] and exercised broad political power unless queens generally could do many of the same things she did. Her reign is a window into what a woman at the top could do in the Hittite Empire. ….
[End of quote]
Trevor Bryce is of the view that a sickness of Hattusilis (“he suffered from a recurrent medical condition”) may have prevented him from personally liasing with pharaoh Ramses II in Canaan (Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East. The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age
As a further inducement to Hattusili, and perhaps in response to misgivings
which the latter had expressed, Ramesses offered to meet his royal brother part-way through his journey:
And I the Great King, the King of Egypt will go to the land of Kinahhi [i.e.
Canaan, where Ramesses probably had a royal residence] in order to see
the Great King, the King of the Land of Hatti, my brother, and appear
before the presence of my brother, and to receive him into my land.
Preparations for the visit apparently progressed to the stage where Ramesses sent his dignitaries to meet Hattusili in the land of Upi. 32 This was the region around Damascus. It bordered on Hittite-controlled territory, but belonged at that time to Egypt. Doubtless the Egyptian reception committee had been instructed to escort Hattusili to his appointed meeting- place with Ramesses in Canaan, whence the pharaoh himself would escort him to his new capital Pi-Ramesse in the Egyptian Delta. Interestingly, it was in this context that Ramesses reminded Hattusili of the Assyrian king's scornful dismissal of him as a mere substitute for a Great King. This gratuitously humiliating reminder seems quite out of place here.
But Ramesses may well have intended it as a further inducement for the reluctant invitee to come to Egypt.
As we have noted, Hattusili was most eager for peer acceptance of his right to sit upon the throne of Hatti — and the Assyrian king had bluntly denied him that. A visit to Egypt at the pharaoh's invitation and as his guest would provide the strongest possible foreign endorsement for the legitimacy of Hattusili's position — effectively offsetting the snub from Assyria.
This, however, is the last we hear of the proposed visit. Almost certainly it
never took place. One of Hattusili's illnesses may have flared up again, causing him to postpone if not cancel the trip. We know that he suffered from a recurrent medical condition which caused severe foot inflammation — 'fire of the feet', as it is called in a prayer of his wife Puduhepa. Word of this particular indisposition had reached the pharaoh, perhaps in the context of an excuse from Hattusili for not taking up his invitation. 33 Ramesses sent him some salves or ointments to try to cure it (see Chapter 7). But apart from Hattusili's state of health, pressing problems within his subject territories, especially in the west, may well have led him to have second thoughts about a journey to the land of the Nile. Such an excursion would almost certainly have kept him away from his own kingdom for three months or more, an absence he could ill afford, especially if he had major concerns about possible uprisings amongst his subject peoples and their neighbours. ….
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