Sea (Hittite deity)

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The sea ( Hittite Aruna ) is a Hittite deity named after the element it embodies. The sea is male. It has features of Hatti assumed sea god, who also Sea ( Hattic HA ) is called.

Adoration

In the Hittite empire , the sea, namely the great sea ( Mediterranean ), was one of those deities who belonged to the state pantheon. In the worship of the great sea and the mysterious tarmana sea ​​in the 13th century BC Chr. Especially took Luwian source Goddess iyáya an important role, but also the Sun god and the gods Teššub , Tašmišu / Šuwaliyat , the LAMMA God , the sun goddess of the earth , the god of war , Ḫuriyanzipa and Halki and the holy mountain Arara, Amuna and Tašša are mentioned in the ritual text.

In the Great Empire cult of the southern Anatolian city of Ḫupišna , the sea, along with the goddess Anna , the deity Zarnizza and the Šarmamma River, was one of those deities who were worshiped in the wake of the goddess Ḫuwaššanna .

In Zalpa , too, sacrifices were made to the sea, here together with the deity Ḫalipinu .

Myths

In a myth handed down from Middle Hittite times, which was probably part of a ritual to calm the sea, the sea god robs the sun. In this myth, the sea is explicitly referred to as the great sea. Because the sea takes the sun ( Ištanu ) from the sky and hides it in its depths, it becomes dark and bad on earth. Therefore, the weather god Tarḫunna asks his son Telipinu to get the sun back. Telipinu obeys his father's instructions and goes to the sea. At the sight of the approaching Telipinu, the sea god begins to fear and gives the sun back. He also gives his daughter to the Telipinu. The name of the daughter of the sea could be the goddess Ḫatepuna . Telipinu brings the sun and the sea daughter from the depths of the sea ashore to Tarḫunna. Immediately, however, a messenger from the sea comes to the weather god who, in the name of the sea, demands a bride price for the bride stolen by Telipinu. In this matter Tarḫuna asks the mother goddess Ḫannaḫanna for advice and she determines that the weather god has to pay the bride price. Tarḫunna gives the sea a thousand cattle and a thousand sheep, with which the sea is content and in this way agrees to the marriage between Telipinu and Ḫatepuna.

The sea also plays a role in the myth of the frost demon Ḫaḫḫima . With this, Ḫaḫḫima threatens to grab and hide the sun. That hears the sea daughter (?). In any case, Ḫatepuna calls from heaven to her father, the sea, and he hears her. To save the sun, he locks it in his room in a jug with a wax stopper and a copper lid.

See also

literature

  • Volkert Haas : The Hittite literature . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018877-6 .
  • Volkert Haas, Heidemarie Koch : Religions of the ancient Orient: Hittites and Iran . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-51695-9 .
  • Piotr Taracha : Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05885-8 .
  • David Michael Weeks: Hittite Vocabulary: An Anatolian Appendix to Buck's Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages . Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles 1983.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Michael Weeks: Hittite Vocabulary: An Anatolian Appendix to Buck's Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages . Los Angeles 1983, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Volkert Haas: The Hittite literature. Berlin 2006, p. 115 f.
  3. ^ Piotr Taracha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Wiesbaden 2009, p. 86.
  4. ^ Piotr Taracha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Wiesbaden 2009, p. 114.
  5. ^ Piotr Taracha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Wiesbaden 2009, p. 48.
  6. ↑ Volkert Haas, Heidemarie Koch: Religions of the ancient Orient: Hittites and Iran . Göttingen 2011, p. 235.
  7. ↑ Volkert Haas: The Hittite literature. Berlin 2006, p. 115 f.
  8. ↑ Volkert Haas: The Hittite literature. Berlin 2006, p. 117 f.