maliya, the punisher

urn:cite2:trmilli:divinities.v1:div_03

The goddess maliya (𐊎𐊀𐊍𐊆𐊊𐊀) is one of the most prominent Lycian divinities. She appears in ten separate inscriptions, usually as a disciplinary agent on tombs.

maliya’s origins most likely lie in the Anatolian bronze age. The Luwians worshiped her as a “the mother of wine and grain” and she had close associations with mountains and rivers. In fact, one inscription (KUB 38.33) refers to a river maliya, and the goddess “maliya of the river” who governs it. she is frequently invoked in conjunction with other major Luwian deities like tarhunt (see trqqas), tiwad (the sun-god) and kamrushepa, placing her at the among one of the most widespread Luwian deities. Interestingly, the Luwians also honored two goddesses titled the maliyanni (little-maliyas). These goddesses were invoked in a religio-magical ritual wherein devotees would dig a pit full of cakes in front of the maliyanni’s cult statue in order to restore fertility to a vinyard.

The Lycian maliya—as far as we can tell—bears a close resemblance to the Luwian counterpart. Based on the number of inscriptions in which maliya appears, she was clearly a prominent deity in Lycia during the first millenium. Evidence of her cult comes mostly from Xanthos, where the Xanthos Stele states that she shared a qla (𐊌𐊍𐊀), or a temenos, with the goddess ertEmi (𐊁𐊕𐊗𐊚𐊎𐊆) and the xNtawata xbidENni (𐊜𐊑𐊗𐊀𐊇𐊀𐊗𐊀 𐊜𐊂𐊆𐊅𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊆). An tomb inscription (TL 149) from Rhodiopolis mentions a priest of maliya named iyamara (𐊆𐊊𐊀𐊎𐊀𐊕𐊀), indicating that maliya had a cult in eastern Lycia as well.

In sepuchral inscriptions, maliya mostly features as a disciplinary agent invoked by the tomb’s owner to punish violators (see TL 75.5, 80.3, 149.2 and 12, and 150.6). For instance, the tomb owner hNtihAma in TL 75 writes:

𐊗𐊀𐊅𐊆 : 𐊗𐊆𐊋𐊁 : 𐊋𐊂𐊆 𐊎𐊚𐊏𐊁 𐊗𐊒𐊂𐊆𐊅𐊆 : 𐊌[𐊍]𐊀[𐊊]𐊁𐊂[𐊆 𐊖]𐊁 𐊎𐊀𐊍𐊆𐊊𐊀 : 𐊖𐊁 𐊗[𐊀𐊖𐊀] : 𐊎𐊆𐊑𐊗𐊀𐊛𐊀
tadi : tike : kbi mEne tobidi : qlayebi se maliya : se tasa : miNtaha
“Whoever places anytone else upon [the individuals already entombed], this qla and maliya and the oaths of the miNti will punish him.”

In some inscriptions (insert here) maliya bears the epithet wedrENni (𐊇𐊁𐊅𐊕𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊆), a complicated term that indicates a defined unit of territory (perhaps similar in function to a Greek deme). The title maliya wedrENni (𐊎𐊀𐊍𐊆𐊊𐊀 𐊇𐊁𐊅𐊕𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊆), therefore, might be translated “maliya of this wedri,” or “the regional maliya.” The scholar J.D. Hawkins suggests that maliya wedrENni be equated with the Greek cult Athena Polias (“Athena of the city”), and indeed in many areas where maliya wedrENni is mentioned, later cults of Athena Polias are recorded.

This identification of maliya with the Greek Athena probably dates to the first half of the fourth century BCE. Evidence for this identification comes from a silver double-headed kantharos (N 307) that depicts the maliya (identified by the inscription “𐊎𐊀𐊍”/”mal”) seated next to figures identifyed as padrita (𐊓𐊀𐊅𐊕𐊆𐊗𐊀) and (insert Paris’s Lycian name). Here, maliya bears a very clear inconographic resemblance to Athena.

Notes:

tbd

Sources:

Bryce, Trevor R. “Disciplinary Agents in the Sepulchral Inscriptions of Lycia.” Anatolian Studies, vol. 31, 1981, pp. 81–93.

Bryce, Trevor R. The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources, vol. 1, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 1986.

Hutter, Manfred. “Aspects in Luwian Religion.” The Luwians, edited by Craig Melchert in Handbook of Oriental Studies vol. 68, Brill, Leiden, 2003. pp. 211–280.

maliya, the punisher

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