__NOTOC__ Ala was a Hittite and

Luwian The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fa ...

goddess of the wilderness and partner of the god

Runtiya __NOTOC__ Runtiya was the Luwian god of the hunt, who had a close connection with deer. He was among the most important gods of the Luwians. Name The name was written in the Luwian cuneiform of the Bronze Age as , which can be read as *Runtiya ...

. She played only a minor role in the pantheon.

Name

"Lady Ala" ( Hittite: ^dMUNUS Ala-;

Hieroglyphic Luwian Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs. A decipherment was pr ...

: FEMINA Ala-) appears in one Bronze Age Hittite text and several Iron Age Luwian texts. The name may derive from the

adjective ''ala-'' ("high"). Personal names in which the goddess is invoked cannot be identified for sure on account of the shortness of the name and cannot be distinguished from names incorporating the adjective ''ala-''. Perhaps the women's name, Alawani, which is known from 18th century BC

Kültepe Kültepe ( Turkish: ''ash-hill''), also known as Kanesh or Nesha, is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey, inhabited from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, in the Early Bronze Age.Kloekhorst, Alwin, (2019)Kanišite Hittite: ...

, is connected to the goddess.

Role

Ala was generally worshiped with the god of the meadow,

Innara Innara (Cuneiform: ) is a Hittite god of woods and fields. Inar is mentioned in the Hahhima-myth. There Tarhun sends Inar to look for sun god Istanu, but the ice devil Hahhima freezes Inar. Inar's tasks are similar to the tasks of the god o ...

, in the Bronze Age and shared several epithets with him. Examples include "Ala of the Animal World," "Ala of the Quiver," "Ala of the Bow," which mark her out as a goddess of hunting. Epithets like "Ala of All Mountains" and "Ala of All Rivers" link her with the wilderness, and she was explicitly linked with Mount Šaluwanta and Mount Šarpa (). In Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Emirgazi, she is invoked along with the tutelary god and the god of mount Šarpa. The epithets "Ala of Health" and "Ala the Mild" indicate that she was a goddess of healing and health, who helped bring the harvest. Ala was worshiped in the Hittite towns of , Kalašmita, and Winiyanta (

Oinoanda Oenoanda or Oinoanda ( Hittite: 𒃾𒅀𒉌𒌓𒉿𒀭𒁕 ''Wiyanawanda'', el, τὰ Οἰνόανδα) was a Lycian city, in the upper valley of the River Xanthus. It is noted for the philosophical inscription by the Epicurean, Diogenes ...

), along with the tutelary god. At Winiyanta, there was a spring festival in her honour.Gregory McMahon: "The Hittite state cult of the Tutelary Deities." ''Assyriological Studies'' 25 (1991). . S.12 In the Iron Age she merged with the goddess

Kubaba Kubaba (in the ''Weidner'' or ''Esagila Chronicle''), sux, , , is the only queen on the ''Sumerian King List'', which states she reigned for 100 years – roughly in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500–2330 BC) of Sumerian history. A co ...

. The goddess "Lady Ala-Kubaba" had a sanctuary in the

Neo-Hittite The states that are called Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works), were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern ...

kingdom of Kumuha (

Commagene Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which ser ...

), near modern

Ancoz Ancoz is the name used in academic literature for an ancient settlement, which is located below the Atatürk Reservoir in the modern state of Turkey. It is located in the modern town of Eskitaş, which used to be called Ancoz. Location The ancie ...

and was worshipped there along with Runtiya of the Meadow, the Sun god Tiwaz, Ikura and Tasku, and the Mount Hurtula (probably

Mount Nemrut Mount Nemrut or Nemrud ( tr, Nemrut Dağı; ku, Çiyayê Nemrûdê; hy, Նեմրութ լեռ; Greek: Όρος Νεμρούτ) is a mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what ...

). Ala is probably depicted on the , along with the deer god.

References

Bibliography

Volkert Haas Volkert may refer to: People *Edward Charles Volkert (1871–1935), American painter *Georg Volkert (1945–2020), German footballer * Stephan Volkert (born 1971), German rower *Volkert Doeksen (born 1963), Dutch money manager *Volkert van der Graa ...

: ''Geschichte der hethitischen Religion'' (= '' Handbuch der Orientalistik.'' Band 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, {{ISBN, 978-9-004-09799-5. Hittite deities Luwian goddesses Hunting goddesses