Pišaišapḫi

A Hittite literary text known as Myth of Pišaiša is focused on him, though its origin and the reading of the names of other deities who play roles in it remains a matter of debate among researchers.

The Hurrian theonym Pišaišapḫi had multiple phonetic writings, such as Pí-ša-ša-ap-ḫi, Pí-ša-i-ša-ap-ḫi or Wii-ša-i-ša-ap-ḫi, which are attested both with and without the “divine determinative” (dingir) preceding the first sign.

[1] Dennis Pardee, who vocalizes this form of the name as Piḏaḏapḫi,[5] erroneously refers to this figure as a “Hurrian goddess of unknown characteristics.”[6] A hieroglyphic writing, possibly (DEUS)Pi-sa4-sà-pa, has been identified in Yazılıkaya.

[8] Alfonso Archi argues that a list of mountains written in Hurrian which mentions Pišaiša alongside Ammarik, originally worshiped as a god in Ebla, can be interpreted as evidence for a Syrian location.

[3] Volkert Haas agreed with the classification of this myth as originally Canaanite, though he noted it should be considered the result of a long period of contact between speakers of Semitic languages and Hurrian.

[23] Piotr Taracha [de] similarly counts it among Hittite adaptations of Hurrian myths, alongside the cycle of Kumarbi, the Song of Release and other compositions.

[24] According to Noga Ayali-Darshan it is more likely to reflect an originally Hurrian, rather than Canaanite, tradition, as indicated by complete absence of Pišaišapḫi from known texts written in any West Semitic language.

[3] She also notes that a phrase describing Pišaišapḫi’s prostration, which compares this action to the fall of an apple from a tree, belongs to the Hurrian milieu.

[21] It has been proposed that the İmamkullu relief might be a pictorial representation of the events described in the Myth of Pišaiša, with the figures depicted being Pišaišapḫi, Šauška, Teššub riding in his chariot, and the pair Namni and Ḫazzi.