186 herbert niehr
the hadad statue and grave chamber presented an architectural and
ritualistic ensemble for the king’s funeral and the royal mortuary cult. this
ensemble is also indicated by the fact that the inscription on the hadad
statue (Kai 214) mentions the cult of the deceased king.
in this context, the following instructions with regard to the cult are to
be considered. to the descendant of panamuwa i, who follows him on the
throne, the request to conduct the royal ancestor worship is addressed:
(15–16) Whosoever from my sons should grasp the [scep]ter and sit on my
throne and maintain power and do sacrifice to this hadad
(17) let him then say:
“[May] the [spi]rit of panamuwa [eat] with thee, and may the spirit
of panamuwa dri[nk] with thee.” let him keep remembering the
spirit of panamuwa with
(18) [had]ad. (Kai 214: 15–18)in this way, the person conducting the sacrifice calls (“to call by name”)
the late king, panamuwa, before hadad to invite the deceased. the suc-
cessor to the throne who refuses this ritual must reckon with the punish-
ment of hadad (Kai 214: 20–24).
the aramaic interpretation of nbš / npš must be stressed, by which nbš
pnmw is understood as the spirit of panamuwa, who is present in the royal
statue. this is the oldest evidence for the aramaic use of nbš / npš in terms
of “spirit of the dead”. in more recent aramaic inscriptions this use of nbš /
npš is often attested.288
otherwise, the “god of his father” (Kai 214: 29–30) appears in samʾal.
to him a member of the royal house should, in case of an allegation, raise
his hands and take an oath. the ʾlh ʾbh named here is reminiscent of the
death spirit known as ʾil ʾib289 from Ugarit, which, in addition to the cult of
the gods el, Baʿal Ṣemed, and rešep, shows a further connection between
samʾal and Ugarit.
as part of the royal ancestor cult of samʾal, hadad, as the chief god of
the pantheon, is tasked to assign portions of the sacrifice, as is written in
the inscription on the statue of tell Fekheriye (Kai 309: 3–4). the sacri-
fice is made to hadad, who invites the nbš of panamuwa to partake in the
celebration. it should be mentioned here that as part of the hittite royal
288 cf. greenfield 1973: 46f, 49f; niehr 1994b: 63–65; Kühn 2005: 117–233; pardee
2009a: 62f.
289 cf. above, note 169.