The disappearance of telipinu in the context of Indo-European myth

The Hittite myth of the disappearance of the god Telipinu (CTH 324) is one particular expression, and the most fully attested, of the genre of the disappearing god in Hittite tradition. In many of its structural details, the myth of Telipinu's disappearance parallels strikingly a widespread Indo-European mythic tradition (with ritual underpinnings), being especially similar to the tradition of the disappearance of Indra following his slaying of the dragon Vrtra. In the several Indo-European cultures that attest the tradition-Indo-Iranian, Italic, Celtic, even Greek-the myth is concerned with the functional absence of a powerful warrior after a combat episode in which the warrior prevails against his enemy but is then overwhelmed by trauma; in his traumatized state, the warrior turns his rage against his own society or physically removes himself from society: either way, he becomes a dysfunctional warrior. In the case of the Hittite myth, however, the disappearance of the god appears to be bound up with the rhythm of the vegetative cycle. The myth of the disappearance of Telipinu presents itself as a reflex of a transplanted Indo-European myth that has experienced synthesis with local southwest Asian traditions. Particularly significant in this regard is its apparent engagement with and influence upon a Syrian storm-god tradition.