Hadabal
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| Hadabal | |
|---|---|
Tutelary god of the Orontes valley | |
| Major cult center | Ebla, Luban, Larugadu, Hamadu[1] |
| Consort | Ba'altum (dBAD.MUNUS)[2] |
Hadabal (also spelled 'Adabal[3]) was a god worshiped in Ebla and its surroundings in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main gods of that area, and appears frequently in Eblaite documents. His character is not well understood, though it has been proposed that he might have been an agricultural or lunar god. Like the city's tutelary god Kura and his wife Barama, he is absent from sources postdating the destruction of Ebla.
The name Hadabal was written as dNI-da-KUL[4] or dNI-da-BAL in Eblaite cuneiform.[5] The KUL sign being a simplified version of BAL, employed in texts later than the time of the vizier Arrukum.[5] Alfonso Archi assumes that it belonged to a linguistic substrate, similar to these of other Eblaite gods, including Adamma, Aštabi, Išḫara and Kura.[6] The existence of a non-Semitic and non-Hurrian substrate language in ancient Syria has been first proposed by Igor M. Diakonoff, who in 1971 concluded that Išḫara and Kubaba, while worshiped by the Hurrians in Syria in the second millennium BCE, were in origin pre-Hurrian deities.[7] This theory subsequently found support from other researchers, such as Volkert Haas, Alfonso Archi[7] and Joan Goodnick Westenholz.[8]
However, Semitic etymologies for Hadabal's name have also been proposed. Paolo Xella interprets it as yawda'-ba'l, "the lord knows," a name structurally similar to Itūr-Mēr and Yakrub-El known from the pantheon of Mari.[9] Pelio Fronzaroli assumes that it might have been a way to render the name Hadda ba'l, "Hadda the lord," but according to Alfonso Archi this is implausible due to the only attested writings of the word ba'l from Ebla being ba-al6 or BAD.[10] He points out that the short history of writing at Ebla makes it unlikely that another sign or signs could have been an additional archaic rendering.[10] The assumption that Hadabal was an epithet of the weather god rather than an independent deity is also considered to be unconvincing by Daniel Schwemer.[3]
Character
Hadabal was likely the principal god of the Orontes valley in the third millennium BCE.[11] It is possible he was an agricultural god.[12] Alfonso Archi states that despite his prominence in Ebla his role and cosmological importance for the most part cannot be presently determined.[13] Hadabal of Larugadu on occasion could receive maces as offerings in Ebla, but it occurred much less frequently than in the case of Haddu and Resheph, possibly indicating that if he had a warlike character, it was less pronounced than in the case of these two gods.[14]
Hadabal had a spouse, referred to with the name Ba'altum (dBAD.MUNUS), "the lady."[2] She is mentioned around forty times in documents from Ebla, with twenty six of these mentions specifying she was associated with Hadabal of Luban.[15] Statues of the pair are attested in a document dealing with offerings made in this location.[16]
Moon god theory
Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that Hadabal was a moon god, as his cult center Larugadu might be the same place as Lrgt from Ugaritic texts, known to be a cult center of the moon god Yarikh in later times,[17] as indicated by the Ugaritic ritual KTU 1.100: "[bring my voice to] Yariḫ in lrgt!" (line 26).[5] Another researcher supporting this theory is Walther Sallaberger.[18] However, it is considered implausible by Alfonso Archi, who points out the distribution of cult sites dedicated to Hadabal makes it unlikely his character was astral.[19] Furthermore, a moon god analogous to Mesopotamian Sin, Suinu, was worshiped in Ebla.[20] Lunar character has also been ascribed to another Eblaite deity, Saggar, though he might have only represented a specific phase of the Moon, as documents from Ebla point association with the crescent. Later evidence from Emar instead indicates a connection with the full moon.[21]