The Kurša Bag on the Eya Tree

The closing image of the Telipinu myth

When Telipinu's anger has been sent to the Dark Earth and he comes home, the text describes an evergreen eya tree set up before him, and hanging from it a hunting bag (kurša) made of sheep's fleece. In the bag lie sheep fat, grain, wine, cattle and sheep, and long years and progeny. The list turns the bag into a container for everything the god's absence had taken away.

A real cult object

The kurša was not only a mythic image. Hittite festival and inventory texts mention kurša bags or fleeces as sacred objects associated with protective deities, carried in procession and renewed in festivals; the most important was kept at Hattusa. The myth's final scene therefore describes something worshippers could actually see, which is one reason scholars read the Telipinu story as a charter for ritual practice.

Interpretation

Comparisons with the Golden Fleece of Greek myth have been proposed, since both are fleeces hung in a tree and associated with prosperity and kingship. The link is debated and should be treated as a possibility, not a demonstrated connection.