Arma was an Anatolian

Moon god A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be found ...

, worshipped by the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

and

Luwians 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-fam ...

in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Name

The name derives from the

Proto-Anatolian Proto-Anatolian is the proto-language from which the ancient Anatolian languages emerged (i.e. Hittite and its closest relatives). As with almost all other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstruc ...

''*ʿOrmo-'' ("wanderer"). He is attested as the Moon god in Hittite and

Luwian religion Luwian religion was the religious and mythological beliefs and practices of the Luwians, an Indo-European people of Asia Minor, which is detectable from the Bronze Age until the early Roman empire. It was strongly affected by foreign influence in ...

, with the name ''Arma-''. In Lycian he was called ''Erm̃ma-'', ''Arm̃ma-'', in

Carian The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, b ...

''Armo'' (dative case), and in Lydian ''Arm-''. In

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

texts, the name is written with the

Sumerogram A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian or Hittite. Sumerograms are no ...

s ^dEN.ZU or ^dXXX, in

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 ...

with a crescent Moon symbol, which is transliterated as (DEUS) LUNA.

Role

While the Hattian moon god,

Kašku Kašku ("shining star") was the Hattian Moon god. He is known from the myth of the "Moon's fall from Heaven," in which he falls from his place in the sky and lands in the marketplace of the city of . The angry weather god Taru drenched him with a ...

was not worshipped, Hittite and Luwian religion involved extensive worship of Arma. For the Luwians in particular, the moon was associated with the months of pregnancy and Arma was therefore believed to protect pregnant women and to help women giving birth (note Hittite ''armaḫḫ-'' ("to impregnate") and ''armai-'' ("to be pregnant"). Thus the Moon god had an important role in family religion. He also served as an important guarantor of oaths in state treaties. His wife was Nikkal (the Mesopotamian goddess

Ningal Ningal ( Sumerian: "Great Queen"), also known as Nikkal in Akkadian, was a Mesopotamian goddess of Sumerian origin regarded as the wife of the moon god, Nanna/Sin. She was particularly closely associated with his main cult centers, Ur and Harran, ...

). The most well-known myth in which the Moon god is involved is of Hattian origin. In this story, the Moon god Kašku falls from heaven and lands in the marketplace or gatehouse of the city of . The angry

weather god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

dropped a heavy downpour of rain on the Moon god, who became very afraid. The goddesses

Ḫapantali Hapantali, also known as Hapantaliya, is an Anatolian and Luwian pastoral goddess. Hapantali cares for the sheep of Istanu. She also helps moon god Arma/ Kaskuh, when he falls down from sky, and takes part in the conference of gods when Telipin ...

and

Kamrušepa Kamrušepa was a Hittite and Luwian goddess of medicine and magic, analogous to Hattic and Palaic goddess Kataḫzipuri. She is best known as one of the deities involved in the Telepinu Myth, in which her actions were crucial to pacify the an ...

eventually saved him using magic spells.

Equivalents

Arma was identified with the

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...

Moon god

Kušuḫ Kušuḫ, also known under the name Umbu, was the List of Hurrian deities, Hurrian god of the moon. He is attested in cuneiform texts from many sites, from Hattusa in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh, Mari, Syria, Mari and other locations in ...

, as in Hittite sources which transmit the Hurrian "Song of Silver," in which the Moon god is defeated by the demon ("Silver") and is thrown out of heaven by him. In Syria he is assimilated to the cult of the Moon god of

Harran Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...

, especially in the 1st millennium BC, which was among the most important deities of the city. It is theorized that the supreme deity of pre-Christian Georgian religion,

Armazi Armazi ( ka, არმაზი) is a locale in Georgia, 4 km southwest of Mtskheta and 22 km northwest of Tbilisi. A part of historical Greater Mtskheta, it is a place where the ancient city of the same name and the original capital of the early ...

, has heavy ties with Hittite Arma.

Legacy

It has been suggested that the name of the deity survived in Anatolia as part of the Galatian compound names Αρμεδυμνος ("Armedumnos") and Ερμεδυμνος ("Ermedumnos"), from

Anatolian Anatolian or anatolica may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia * Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages * Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational institution * Anatol ...

"Arma-" 'moon' and Galatian (a

Celtic language The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

) "-dumnos" 'world'.Freeman, Ph.. "Lycian/Galatian Αρμεδυμνος". In: ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' 55, no. 1 (2007): 56. https://doi.org/10.1515/ZCPH.2007.56

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 ...

: ''Die hethitische Literatur.'' Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, , pp. 120 f., 150 f. * Volkert Haas,

Heidemarie Koch Heidemarie Koch (17 December 1943 – 28 January 2022) was a German Iranologist. Life and career Koch was born in Merseburg, Saxony, Prussia, Germany. She studied mathematics as her major between 1963 and 1966. Subsequently, she worked as a teach ...