Hedammu
Mythological Narrative
A voracious sea-serpent, son of Kumarbi and the daughter of the Sea, whom the goddess Šauška draws out of the water with her beauty in the fragmentary Song of Hedammu.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Another of Kumarbi's champions
The Song of Hedammu (CTH 348) is the most fragmentary song of the Hurrian Kumarbi cycle. In it, Kumarbi allies with the Sea and marries the Sea's daughter, Šertapšuruḫi, and their child is Hedammu, a monstrous serpent that lives in the sea and eats without end. Its appetite threatens the whole world: if it devours humanity and the animals, there will be no one left to bring offerings to the gods.
## Šauška's plan
The goddess Šauška, Teššub's sister, takes on the serpent. The surviving fragments describe her bathing, anointing herself with perfumed oil, and adorning herself, then going down to the shore and showing herself to Hedammu, who is enchanted. The text seems to go on to describe her giving him a drugged or intoxicating drink, but the ending is not preserved, and it is not known exactly how Hedammu was overcome.
## Relationship to Ullikummi
Hedammu's story and Ullikummi's are variations on a theme: Kumarbi breeds a monster to overthrow Teššub, and Šauška's seduction is tried against it. With Hedammu it seems to work; with the deaf and blind Ullikummi it fails, and a different kind of wisdom is needed.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Hedammu.
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