Judith Starkston-Writing Fiction from History: The Silver Stag Rhyton

For a novelist, a beautiful or mystical object preserved from the past can trigger an entire scene. An ancient setting with so many exotic and intriguing elements is particularly fruitful this way and that is especially true of the world that I write about, the Hittite Empire of the Late Bronze Age in what is today Turkey.

I thought when I started writing fiction that my training as a classicist and years of teaching humanities, with its interplay between cultural artifacts, history and literature, had taught me enough to portray a town near Troy on the eve of the Trojan War. Every time a character reaches for something, wears clothes, eats food, travels or sits down, I had to know what might actually have existed—a tough project it turns out, requiring multiple more years of research.

One of my favorite “finds” can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, part of the Schimmel collection. You can see a photo of it in this post, part of the wonderful open access process that has made many photos of art objects at the Met available for public use. This silver rhyton—a rhyton is a libation cup in the shape of an animal (although there’s another shaped like a fist)—is one of the loveliest of the treasures we have from the Hittites, the empire whose cultural and political presence is felt throughout the area surrounding Troy. This cup was produced sometime during the 14^th – 13^th centuries B.C. during the height of the Hittite empire.

The rhyton is shaped like a stag with branching antlers, regal face, graceful neck and neatly tucked forelegs. The part that resembles a cup is attached to the stag’s foreparts at a right angle so that when the cup is tilted upright to be filled with wine, the chamber formed by the stag’s head points down and must also fill with wine. At 18 cm tall from antler tip to hoof it’s about the height of a standard wine glass when resting with the stag’s head upright, but it makes a far greater impression and a much less convenient drinking cup. This cup, like its bull-shaped brethren seen on Crete and elsewhere, was used to make libations to the gods.

The “cup” part of the rhyton, the brim and cylindrical portion, is decorated with a frieze, a raised design portraying a religious procession and offerings to the gods—just the sort of situation in which the rhyton would have been used.

We know about these religious rituals in great detail because the Hittites left behind extensive

archives written in cuneiform script on clay tablets. I’ve included a photo of one of these tablets—they look like a lot of birds walked on them.

Tablet after tablet describes elaborate festivals in honor of their gods lasting days or weeks. In many of these the king and queen traveled to different cities in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) to perform stages of the festivals. Offerings of animal sacrifices, a wide array of breads and cakes, grains, wine and beer were given to their “pantheon of a thousand gods.” At times the king dropped everything in the midst of waging a war to hurry back in order to perform such duties. These festivals clearly held the highest importance.

So imagine the king or queen, priest or priestess lifting high that silver stag. This is how I pictured it for the young priestess Briseis in my novel Hand of Fire:

The final cycle of prayers—those to Kamrusepa—began. As Briseis lifted the goddess’s silver libation cup, shaped like a silver stag, and recited the hymn of thanksgiving, she felt the presence of the whole gathering in her voice, their hopes and needs. She tipped the stag cup to pour the libation over Kamrusepa’s ancient stone altar. The blood red wine soaked into the rough surface as the goddess received her honor. Briseis scattered barley over the sheep and goat to be sacrificed. An assisting priest cut their throats, let their blood drain away, and while everyone waited, the priests who were trained in ritual butchering, prepared them for the fire. The townspeople would partake along with the goddess of the roasted meat, so they could be patient. 

 

Tweets:

Scenes for #historicalfiction inspired by mystical objects fr past. Stag Rhyton @metmuseum #amwriting http://bit.ly/2uAOsr9

Ancient #mythic world of #Troy brought alive w/ mystical #historical objects in HAND OF FIRE http://bit.ly/2uAOsr9

Facebook: Judith Starkston graces Caroline Adams Writer’s blog with the tale of the archaeological impetus for her writing THE HAND OF FIRE during the Hittite Empire. http://bit.ly/2uAOsr9

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