Zitḫariya

Zitḫariya is the Hittite patron god of the king and queen. He was worshiped in the shape of a kurša hunting bag . During the campaign this was carried by the king as a talisman .

cult

In the Hittite capital Ḫattuša there was a temple of the kurša hunting bag, where several protective deities were venerated, the first of which was Zitḫariya. Below the statuettes of the gods there were pillars on which the kurša hunting bags were hung. These were renewed from time to time. After a new kurša hunting bag was brought into the temple, the old one was sent away and went to Tuḫuppiya.

When the Hittite king went to war, he carried the Zitḫariya with him in the form of a kurša hunting bag. When the king came home from the campaign in autumn, the nuntarriyašḫa festival was celebrated, where Zitḫariya received thanks offerings, goats and grain, for the successful outcome of the campaign. He was sent on a ritual tour through several cities. In the war against the Kaškaers , Zitḫariya was asked to accuse the Kaškaers of the gods for occupying Hittite territories. A sheep sacrifice was brought to him before a battle against the Kaškäer.

In addition to the king's Zitḫariya, a Queen’s Zitḫariya was also worshiped.

literature

• Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 978-9-004-09799-5 .
• Piotr Taracha : Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Harrassowitz 2009. ISBN 978-3-447-05885-8