Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

themselves had a recollection about an Anatolian origin for the cult of Artemis. In
Sparta, where both her images (one related to the initiation of young males and
another with the different function of raising small babies) were well integrated into the
life of the state 299 , “there were Spartan rituals that centered on Lydian themes, such as
t«n Lud«n pompÆ, the ‘Procession of the Lydians’ mentioned in Plutarch Aristeides
17.10 in connection with the cult of Artemis Orthia. We may compare an event known
as the ‘Dance of the Lydian Maidens’, at a festival of Artemis at Ephesus.’ 300
Mycenaen A-te-mi-to = ÉArt°mitow (Genitive)/A-ti-mi-te = ÉArt¤mitei (Dative)
corresponds to Dorian and Beotian ÖArtamiw, ÖArtemiw in Delphi, etc., and shows the
instability of the vowel e/i/a. The name of the Lydian goddess corresponding to Greek
Artemis in the form Artimu- is attested many times in Lydian inscriptions: Nominative
Singular Animate gender Artimu-≈ (with loss of the ending before enclitic -k: Artimu-k
in the Lydian-Aramaic bilingual text 301 : Lydian artimu-≈ ib≈imsis artimu-k kulumsis =
Aramaic ’rtmu zy klw w’pÍÍy “Artemis of Ephesus and Artemis of Koloe”), Dative-
Locative artimu-l, Accusative artimu-n, possessive adjective artimu-lis. 302
The Meskene/Emar list AN cited above makes possible a suggestion on the origin
of Greek Arte/i/ami-s and Lydian Artimu- from the Hurrian epithet of the goddess ar-
ta/du-ma-an-zi = URU KI “of the City, belonging to the City”, ar-du-ma-Íe-na-za. 303 The
epithet is derived from Hurrian ardi- “city” (Urartian ardi-ni “The City = MuΩaΩir, the
capital of Urartu and the cultic centre of the god Haldi”, cf. Ardi as an Urartian name for
a goddess 304 ). According to the Meskene/Emar list, that was the epithet of the Lioness-
299 Vernant 1986, 15-24.
300 Nagy 1990, 273, n.18 (with an emphasis on the local Spartan interest in such quasi-foreign rites
important for the state and the city).
301 Kahle and Sommer 1930, 66, with a suggestion followed by all specialists about a purely phonetic
reason for the disappearance of the ending before an enclitic (otherwise one might have thought of a
zero Casus Indefinitus, known in Hittite particularly in proper names).
302 Heubeck 1969; Gusmani 1964 s.v.
303 Laroche 1980, 54 and 201; 1989, 11 (n.205). Laroche gives the second cuneiform sign of the name in two
different readings.
304 Diakonoff 1951, 28 a.o.; Arutiunian 1985, 34-35; Meshchaninov 1978, 349-352; Melikishvili 1960, 147-
149; 417. As a Northern Caucasian correspondence the stem *HdËrV “plot of land, yard, enclosure” is
reconstructed on the basis of Archi dori “place for community meetings”; Chechen arda-Í “allotments,