In Judaism: Myths … and the monster Tiamat; the Hittites told of a battle between the weather god and the dragon Illuyankas; while a Canaanite poem from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria relates the discomfiture of Sir Sea by the deity Baal and the rout of an opponent named Leviathan. Originally, this… Read More
In Moses: The Covenant at Sinai of Moses …between equals, but between the Hittite king (the suzerain) and a subordinate ruler (the vassal). In the prologue the Hittite ruler described himself as “the great king,” the one granting the treaty. Then followed a historical survey of relationships between the Hittite suzerain and his vassal. Special attention to the… Read More
Middle Eastern religions
In Middle Eastern religion: The archaeological revolution A previously little-known people, the Hittites, are, because of archaeological discoveries, now recognized as a major power of antiquity with a rich legacy of religious texts, especially rituals. Read More
In Anatolian religion: Sources of modern knowledge …much weathered, figure of a Hittite goddess carved high up on the slopes of Mount Sipylus (near Manisa) was of necessity ascribed by the 2nd-century-ad Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias to the Mother of the Gods, since no other ancient Anatolian goddess was known to him. Read More
sacred kingship
In sacred kingship: The divine or semidivine king …in areas ruled by the Hittite kings. The Persian king was regarded as the incarnation of the sun god or of the moon god. In addition to sky or sun deities, the sacred king also has been identified with other gods: the town god (Mesopotamia), the gods of the country,… Read More
In covenant: Late Bronze Age developments …attested by treaties of the Hittite empire of Asia Minor. Though the realities of political life were probably little changed, since the foreign policy of the Hittite empire was primarily military, the structure of suzerainty treaties from this time on included rather strenuous efforts to demonstrate that the vassal’s obligations… Read More
worship of
Arinnitti
In Arinnitti Hittite sun goddess, the principal deity and patron of the Hittite empire and monarchy. Her consort, the weather god Taru, was second to Arinnitti in importance, indicating that she probably originated in matriarchal times. Arinnitti’s precursor seems to have been a mother-goddess of Anatolia, symbolic… Read More
Kubaba
In Kubaba In religious texts of the Hittite empire (c. 1400–c. 1190 bc), she played a minor part and appeared mainly in a context of Hurrian deities and rituals. After the downfall of the empire her cult spread westward and northward, and she became the chief goddess of the successor kingdoms (the… Read More
Teshub
In Teshub …weather god, assimilated by the Hittites to their own weather god, Tarhun (q.v.). Several myths about Teshub survive in Hittite versions. One, called the “Theogony,” relates that Teshub achieved supremacy in the pantheon after the gods Alalu, Anu, and Kumarbi had successively been deposed and banished to the netherworld. Another… Read More
