Tarḫunz

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Tarhunza from Aleppo

Tarḫunz (root form: Tarḫunt-) is the Luwian weather god and also the most important god of the Luwians.

Surname

The name of the Proto-Anatolian weather god can be reconstructed as * Tṛḫu-de- and is a participle of the Indo-European root * terh 2 ; heth. tarḫu- (“conquer, conquer, overcome”). He lived in almost all Anatolian languages on ( Hitt . Tarḫunna- ; kar . Trquδ- and lyk . Trqqas (A); Trqqiz (B) connected to Zeus was equated.

In the cuneiform Luwian of the Bronze Age his name was Tarḫunt- , in the older language Tarḫuwant- . It could also be written with the sumerograms d U ("God 10") or d IM ("God Wind"). In the hieroglyphic Luwian it was written as Tarhunza and Tarhunta or with the ideogram (DEUS) TONITRUS ("God Thunder").

The god's name often appears in personal names. The oldest evidence comes from the 19th century BC. In Kültepe as Tarḫuan ; It was a custom among the Luwians that people could have a pure god name; compound names were more common. These names are quite common in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.

The most recent names are Hellenized personal names from southern Anatolia. So in Cilicia Tarkumbios (Ταρκυμβιος, luw. * Tarhun-piya- "Tarhun-Gabe") or Trokombigremis (Τροκομβιγρεμις; * Tarhun-pihra-mi- "shiny tarhun") can be found.

In addition, the Hittite city of Tarḫuntašša was named after the Luwian weather god.

Essence

Tarhunza of the Vineyard; İvriz rock relief

The Luwian weather god retained his Indo-European features more clearly than the Hittite weather god Tarḫunna . So he was less associated with the bull, as is common in Anatolia, but with the horse. According to the ritual against horse sickness of the Uḫḫamuwa of Arzawa , the horses of the weather god are fed and his carriages are lubricated with sheep fat (HT 1 ii 34ff.).

The tarhunt's various Luwian epithets indicate its functions. He was powerful (kluw. D U muwatalla / i- ; hluw. Muwatalis Tarhunz ) and helpful (kluw. D U warraḫitaššaš ; "Tarhunz of help"), but also punitive (kluw. Tapattanašši- d U). So Tarhunz is asked in Iron Age testimonies to smash opponents with his ax.

During the war he leads the king ahead and awarded the victory and could therefore Tarhunz the (battle) field (kluw. Immarašša- d IM) or Tarhunz of the Army (hluw. Kuwalanassis Tarhunz ) are called.

The weather god is also associated with mountains (kluw. Ariyattališ d IM -anz ; hluw. Aritalasis Tarhunz ; "Mountain Tarhunz"). In the Iron Age Karkamis , Tarhunz was worshiped by Mount Arputa ( Arputawanis Tarhunz ).

As a heavenly god of weather, he is called the Tarhunz of Heaven. As a shining or flashing god he was nicknamed piḫaimiš ("flashing, shining") and piḫaššaššiš ("of lightning, shine"). The name of the Greek horse of the gods Pegasus is derived from the latter .

Personal god of Muwatalli II.

The Hittite great king Muwatalli II chose the weather god of lightning ( d U piḫaššaššiš) as his patron god , whom he addressed as “weather god of lightning, my lord, the king of heaven” . According to his statements, he was raised by God and he also installed him in kingship. His prayer to God shows Luwian characteristics:

"The weather god of lightning shines over me like the moonlight, shines over me like the sun god of the sky!" (KUB 6.45 iii 68-70)

Tarhunz of the vineyard

A Luwian innovation is the weather god of the vineyard. It is first mentioned in a South Anatolian vineyard ritual from the 16th century BC. Mentioned. Afterwards he was invoked to encourage the royal vineyard to flourish, together with the goddess Mamma and other pairs of gods such as the patron god and Ala or Telipinu and Maliya .

During the Iron Age, Tarhunz of the Vineyard ( tuwarasina Tarhunza ) was especially venerated in Tabal . King Warpalawa of Tuwana (2nd half of the 8th century BC) had an imposing rock painting with the relief of the god set up near a rich spring near İvriz . He is depicted as a bearded god with curls and a helmet. He wears a knee skirt and belt, but no sword. He holds grapes in his left hand and ears of corn in his right. Animals were sacrificed to him and as thanks "much came down from heaven and much came up from the earth" . In Sam'al it appears Aramaic as Hadad of the vineyard ( hdd krmn / Hadad Karmîn /).

Cult places

Aleppo was already a national weather god city in the early Bronze Age . With the subjugation of Syria by Šuppiluliuma I (1355-1325 BC) this city was incorporated into the Hittite Empire and Šuppiluliuma set his son Telipinu as priest-king of Aleppo. The temple of the weather god in Aleppo was adapted to the Hittite cult. During the Iron Age a new temple was built, dedicated to the Tarhunz of Halpa.

Dragon fight

Late Luwian relief from Arslantepe with the weather god and a companion fighting a snake monster

In a relief from Arslantepe , the weather god and a companion are shown fighting against a snake-like water creature. This representation is reminiscent of the Hittite Illuyanka and the Hurrian Ḫedammu , a myth that is widespread in the Indo-European cultures and also in the Middle East.

The Anatolian myth was adopted from Greek mythology, according to which Zeus fought the dragon Typhon . Cilicia is discussed as adopting the myth because contacts between Greeks and Anatolians were intense there from an early age. The locations of the myth also point in this direction: Mount Kasion in Syria and especially the area around Korykos in the rough Cilicia, where the Luwian religion lived on until Roman times.

presentation

Jupiter Dolichenus von Heddernheim

There are no representations from the Bronze Age that can be related to the Luwian weather god. From the Iron Age, however, around 60 relief representations and statues of the weather god are known. A distinction can be made between three types.

In the simple representation he is shown as a bearded god, with a horned helmet, short skirt and belted with a sword. He holds an ax in his back hand and a bundle of lightning in his front . A winged sun can be depicted above the head as a symbol of his ruling power.

The second type depicts him similarly, but standing on a bull. This picture represents the weather god of Aleppo, who strongly influenced the ideas about the nature of Tarhunz in Syria. After this depiction in the 7th century BC Disappeared in BC, it reappears in northern Syria at the beginning of the Roman Empire, and came with Roman soldiers as Iupiter Dolichenus to Central Europe, whose cult center was in Dülük (ancient: Doliche) northwest of Karkamis. The bronze triangle of Heddernheim in particular shows a striking resemblance to depictions of the Luwian Tarhunz in northern Syria.

The third type depicts the weather god with ears of corn and grapes. This type is common in Tabal (Anatolia). The best known is the İvriz rock relief . This taroon of the vineyard can be depicted unarmed or with an ax and a bundle of lightning.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Hutter : Aspects in Luwian Religion. In: H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Luwians (= Handbuch der Orientalistik. Volume 1.68). Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13009-8 , p. 220.
  2. ↑ Frank Starke: Study of the stem formation of the cuneiform Luwian noun (= studies on the Boǧazköy texts . Volume 31). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-447-02879-3 , p. 136.
  3. ↑ Thomas Zehnder: The Hittite women's names. Catalog and interpretation. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06139-1 , pp. 284 f.
  4. ^ Philo Hendrik Jan Houwink Ten Cate: The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period . EJ Brill, Leiden 1961, pp. 125-128.
  5. ↑ Manfred Hutter : Aspects in Luwian Religion. In: H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Luwians (= Handbuch der Orientalistik. Volume 1.68). Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13009-8 , p. 222.
  6. ↑ Manfred Hutter: The Luwian weather god piḫaššašši and the Greek Pegasus . In: Michaela Ofitsch, Christian Zinko (eds.): Studia Onomastica et Indogermanica. Festschrift for Fritz Lochner von Hüttenbach on his 65th birthday. Leykam, Graz 1995, ISBN 3-7011-0015-2 , pp. 79-97.
  7. ↑ Manfred Hutter : Aspects in Luwian Religion. In: H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Luwians (= Handbuch der Orientalistik. Volume 1.68). Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13009-8 , p. 223.
  8. ^ Philo Hendrik Jan Houwink Ten Cate: The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period. EJ Brill, Leiden 1961, pp. 203-220.
  9. ^ Sanna Aro: Art and Architecture . In: H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Luwians (= Handbuch der Orientalistik. Volume 1.68). Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13009-8 , p. 317ff.
  10. ↑ Guy Bunnens: The Storm-God in Northern Syria ans Southern Anatolia from Hadad of Aleppo to Jupiter Dolichenus . In: Manfred Hutter; Official religion, local cults and individual religiosity ; Ugarit-Verlag (2004). ISBN 3-934628-58-3 . Pp. 57-82

literature

See also

Representations of Tarhunza