Plague Prayers of Mursili II
CTH 378
A twenty-year plague is not random misfortune but the gods' punishment for a specific, identifiable broken oath, and the king must confess and correct that exact wrong before the suffering will end.
- plague as divine punishment for a broken oath
- oracle-driven diagnosis of guilt
- sin of the father visited on the son
- confession as remedy, not just complaint
Facing a plague that killed his father and ravaged the kingdom for two decades, Mursili II composed a series of prayers systematically investigating why the gods were angry, working through possible causes by consulting oracles and old records. He concludes that his father Suppiluliuma I broke a sworn treaty oath with Egypt and failed to perform proper offerings, and that the gods are punishing the son for the father's unexpiated sin. The prayers combine confession, legal argument, and personal appeal, treating divine anger as something that can be diagnosed and corrected rather than simply endured.
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