A proposed Indo-Aryan etymology for Hurrian timer(i)/timar(i).

• Author: Burgin, James Michael

In Hurrian, timer(i)/timar(i) 'dark' appears exclusively in the phrase timerre ezeni "the dark earth" (abl.-inst.). It has been suggested that this phrase and its reflexes in Hittite and Greek derive from the common religious trope of "the devouring earth" originating in northern Mesopotamia, with Hurrian providing the first attestation. However, the atypical morphology of the adjective, which cannot be derived from a noun and does not have the normal (C)VC root pattern of Hurrian, and the semantic field, with Hurrian having borrowed many words for colors, make a native Hurrian origin for timer(i)/timar(i) unlikely. It is suggested instead that the adjective, as well as its counterpart timiras 'a dark/black color (of an animal)' in the Kassite language, was borrowed from Indo-Aryan *tam-[e]r, probably as a result of a shared Indo-Aryan cultural superstratrum. While no alternatives are offered, such an etymology calls into question a Hurrian origin for the religious concept of "devouring earth." A passage in the Hittite-Hurrian Bilingual KBo 32.13 (CTH 789, "The Song of Release") has attracted attention because of its implications for the origins of the Hittite phrase "the dark earth" (dankui tegan). Norbert Oettinger observed that this phrase shares superficial similarities with poetic descriptions of the earth in other Indo-European languages, where the earth was conventionally paired with an adjective describing its color, such as 'dark', 'black', or 'brown'. (1) But "dark earth" took a narrower sense in Homeric Greek, Hittite, and the Hurro-Mesopotamian tradition. In these languages, the "dark earth" specifically referred to the netherworld as the abode of the ancient, chthonic deities and the place where men's souls were devoured. Given that this sense of the phrase is not present in the other Indo-European languages and that the phrase is first witnessed in a Hurrian context, he concludes that the "dark earth" as a netherworld trope originated in northern Mesopotamia and was secondarily borrowed into Hittite and Greek. (2)

The Song of Release (3) was written on a two-column clay tablet (Bo 83/601) recovered from the Upper City at Hattusa, with the Hurrian in the left-hand column (col. I) accompanied by a Hittite translation in the right-hand column (col. II). The passage containing the Hurrian phrase for "dark earth" appears in the myth's context when Tessub, the Hurrian storm-god, makes his way below the earth to the abode of Allani, the Hurrian goddess of the underworld. The relevant lines are presented below:

KBo 32.13 obv. I and II, 9-10

Hurr.: DIM-ub sa-at-ta(-)ha-mu-u-ra su-ur-ru-u I ti-me-er-re-e e-se-ni du-u-ri

Tessub along with an h. -attendant came down to the dark earth. Hitt.: DlM-as-kan DSu-wa-li-ya-az-za-as-sa I kat-ta-an-ta ta-an-ku-wa-i tak-ni-i

i-ya-an-ni-ir

Tessub and Suwaliyaz were going down in the dark earth.

The Hurrian phrase ti-me-er-re-e e-se-ni (timer(i)=ne eze=ni) corresponds to Hittite tankuwai takni...