Page 240 of 384
236 If that was so, the king told Teshub in his supplications, he would offer restitution, "acknowledge his father's sins," and accept full responsibility. If more repentance or restitu- tion was required, he asked the god again to "let me see it in a dream, or let it be found by an omen, or let a prophet declare it to me." He thus listed again the three accepted or expected methods of divine communication. Since the text, when found, ends here, one must assume that with that the wrath of Teshub had ended and so did the plague. Other Hittite inscriptions recording Divine Encounters through dreams and visions have been found. Some of them concern the goddess Ishtar, the Sumerian Inanna, whose rise to prominence continued well after Sumerian times. In one such inscription, the Hittite prince who was heir to the throne stated that the goddess appeared to his father in a dream, telling him that the young prince had only a few years to live; but that if he be dedicated as a priest to Ishtar, "then he shall stay alive." When the king followed the oracle dream, the prince lived on and his brother (Muwatallis) inher- ited the throne in his stead. The same Muwatallis and Ishtar are the principals in a dream reported by Hattusilis II (1275-1250 B.C.), also a brother of Muwatallis. It tells that Muwatallis, apparently Figure 80 DIVINE ENCOUNTERS