Telipinu (

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 ...

: , ; Hattic: ''Talipinu'' or ''Talapinu'', "Exalted Son")Beckman, Gary. "Telipinu" in ''Reallexicon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie'', Vol. 13. 2012 was a Hittite god who most likely served as a patron of farming, though he has also been suggested to have been a

storm 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 ...

or an embodiment of crops. He was a son of the

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 ...

Tarḫunna Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti". Name Tarḫunna is a cognate of the Hittite verb ''tarḫu-zi'', "to prevail, conquer, be power ...

( Taru) and the

solar goddess A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...

Arinniti The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief goddess and companion of the weather god Tarḫunna in Hittite mythology. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the "Queen of all lands." ...

in the system of their

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

. His wife was the goddess

Ḫatepuna Ḫatepuna or Ḫatepinu was a Bronze Age Anatolian goddess of Hattian origin, also worshiped by Hittites and Kaška. She was regarded as the wife of Telipinu, and like him was likely an agricultural deity. In a different tradition, her husband ...

, though he was also paired with and

Kataḫḫa Kataḫḫa or Kataḫḫi was a name or title of multiple goddesses worshiped in ancient Anatolia by Hattians and Hittites, with the best known example being the tutelary deity of Ankuwa. It has been proposed that goddesses sharing this name were ...

at various cultic centres. Telipinu was honored every nine years with an extravagant festival in the autumn at Ḫanḫana and Kašḫa, wherein 1000 sheep and 50 oxen were sacrificed and the symbol of the god, an oak tree, was replanted. He was also invoked formulaically in a daily prayer for King

Muršili II Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom) c. 1330–1295 BC (middle chronology) or 1321–1295 BC (short chronology). King of the Hittites Mursili was the third born son of King Suppiluliuma I, one of ...

during the latter's reign. An ancient Hittite myth about Telipinu, the ''Telipinu Myth'', describes how his disappearance causes all fertility to fail, both plant and animal: In order to stop the havoc and devastation, the gods seek Telipinu but fail to find him. Hannahanna, the

mother goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...

, sent a bee to find him; when the bee did, stinging Telipinu and smearing wax on him, the god grew angry and began to wreak destruction on the world. Finally,

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 ...

, goddess of magic, calmed Telipinu by giving his anger to the Doorkeeper of the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

. In other references it is a mortal priest who prays for all of Telipinu's anger to be sent to bronze containers in the underworld, from which nothing escapes.''The Ancient Near East'', J.B.Pickard, page 88. In either case, it is difficult to determine anything about the nature of Telipinu from this myth, as myths along the same pattern have also been found featuring the unrelated goddessess

Anzili Anzili or EnziliPiotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia''. Wiesbaden 2009, p. 56. was a Hittite goddess who was worshiped in Tamita and Zapišḫuna. Her name is sometimes written with the Sumerogram IŠTAR or the compound IŠTAR ...

and . It has been suggested that Telipinu endured in later mythology as the Greek

Telephus In Greek mythology, Telephus (; grc-gre, Τήλεφος, ''Tēlephos'', "far-shining") was the son of Heracles and Auge, who was the daughter of king Aleus of Tegea. He was adopted by Teuthras, the king of Mysia, in Asia Minor, whom he succeeded ...

and the Caucasian Telepia, but this identification is uncertain. In addition, his name was adopted by several kings, such as the Hittite monarch

Telipinu Telipinu was the last king of the Hittites Old Kingdom, living in 16th century BC, reigned c. 1525-1500 BC in middle chronology. At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all ...

References

{{Authority control Agricultural gods Hittite deities Sky and weather gods