consisting of models of ‘five gold tumours and five gold rats’
(1 Samuel 6:4). By implication, the rats were associated with the
disease itself. The linking of tumours and rats has led to the
suggestion that the Philistines were suffering from bubonic plague.
The handing over of expiatory offerings in the form of models of
the chief agents of the disease would serve to remove it from its
sufferers, by a form of sympathetic magic, a magical process by
association, and through the grace of God.
Of course, we’re talking here purely of biblical tradition. But we
may reasonably suppose that bubonic plague was not unknown in
the ancient Near East, specifically, for my proposal, in that part
of it from which the prisoners-of-war were brought to Hatti in
Suppiluliuma’s reign. It was perhaps carried byflea-infested rats
in the baggage brought to the Hittite homeland along with the
prisoners, or by the prisoners themselves who could also be
hosts for colonies of fleas. And all this happened because of
Suppiluliuma’s fury over the Egyptians’alleged responsibility for
the death of his son!
In any case, the plague was regarded by Mursili as divinely
inflicted. It could be ended only when Mursili had determined
why the gods had imposed so severe a punishment on their own
people–and to their own detriment. We’ll come back to this in
Chapter 24, when we’ll be talking in more detail about the
relationship between the gods and their mortal worshippers.
The man who became ruler by default over the vast Hittite
empire must rank among the greatest of all Hittite rulers. Like his
father and his grandfather, Mursili brought the Hittite kingdom
back from the brink of annihilation against what appear to have
been almost insuperable odds. What made his achievement all the
more remarkable is that he did so at a time when his land was in the
grip of a virulent plague. We should further stress that unlike his
father who was a highly experienced warrior, spending many years
in the battlefield, Mursili came to the throne as little more than a
youth (though certainly more than a child) when the mantle of
kingship was suddenly thrust upon him. In addition to everything
I’ve said above, Mursili had other problems of a personal nature to
deal with. These in themselves could have impaired significantly
116 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA