Ḫuwaššanna was a goddess worshiped in

Hittite religion Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religion, religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in Anatolia from . Most of the narratives embodying Hittite mythology are lost, and the elements that w ...

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 ...

in the second millennium BCE. Her name could be written phonetically or using the logogram ^d GAZ.BA.BA and its variants. She was the main goddess of the city of Ḫupišna, though is also attested in association with Kuliwišna. Two types of priestesses, ''ḫuwaššannalli'' and ''alḫuitra'', are attested exclusively in association with her. She was no longer worshiped in the first millennium BCE.

Name and character

Ḫuwaššanna's name was written in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

as ''^dḪu-(u-)ṷa-aš-ša-an-na''. Sometimes the

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

s are omitted in transcription, resulting in the spelling Huwassanna. The

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of this

theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...

is uncertain. The name of the sparsely attested

Mesopotamian goddess Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', a ...

Gazbaba Gazbaba, also known as Kazbaba or Kazba, was a Mesopotamian goddess closely associated with Inanna, Nanaya and Kanisurra. Like them, she was connected with love and eroticism. Name and character Gazbaba's name is most likely derived from the Akka ...

could be used as a

logographic In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chinese c ...

writing of Ḫuwaššanna's. The reading has been established based on comparison between the list of deities invoked in a treaty between

Šuppiluliuma I Šuppiluliuma I, also Suppiluliuma () or Suppiluliumas (died c. 1322 BC) () was an ancient Hittite king (r. –1322 BC).Bryce 2005: xv, 154; Freu 2007b: 311 dates the reign to c. 1350–c. 1319 BC; Kuhrt 1995: 230 dates him within the range 1370 ...

and Ḫuqqana of Ḫayaša, in which Ḫuwaššanna's name is written phonetically, and other similar documents, where the same place is occupied by ^dGAZ.BA.A, ^dGAZ.BA.BA or ^dGAZ.BA.YA. While the use of the logogram is most common in international treaties, it is attested in other types of texts: descriptions of festivals, oracles and dreams, prayers and inventories. It is also used in the writing of the name of a minor

tutelary deity A tutelary (; also tutelar) is a deity or a Nature spirit, spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept ...

associated with Ḫuwaššanna, ^d LAMMA ^dGAZ.BA.A.A. However, there is no indication in Hittite texts that Ḫuwaššanna was regarded as a love goddess similar to Gazbaba. A difficult to interpret fragmentary text, KBo 24.29+ III 6'-7', uses a derivative of the term ''istarna-'', "middle", to describe Ḫuwaššanna's character, though it is not certain what her status as a "middle spirit" entailed.

Hans Gustav Güterbock Hans Gustav Güterbock (May 27, 1908 – March 29, 2000) was a Germany, German-Americans, American Hittitologist. Born and trained in Germany, his career was ended with the rise of the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, and he was forced to re ...

proposed that Ḫuwaššanna might have functioned as an "irate deity", though there is no indication in known texts that she was believed to disappear when angered, in contrast with gods such as Telipinu. Ḫuwaššanna's iconography is unknown.

Associations with other deities

Ḫuwaššanna was considered a daughter of the male Hittite solar deity, Ištanu, who like her was one of the primary members of the pantheon of Ḫupišna. Nothing is otherwise known about her family. The goddess Anna, originally the main deity of Kanesh, was worshiped alongside Ḫuwaššanna in Ḫupišna. In this context she appears as a member of a local group of primeval deities (''ḫantezziuš'' DINGIR^MEŠ) which also included the deified sea, the river Šarmamma and the deity Zarnizza. However, Piotr Taracha notes it might be possible that a different deity with a

homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

name is meant, rather than the old goddess of Kanesh. Other deities associated with Ḫuwaššanna in the same city included Lallariya, Awatta, Kupilla, Liliya and Muli, the last of whom might have been a deified mountain. In Kuliwišna she was seemingly connected with two manifestations of Maliya and an anonymous tutelary deity instead. In treaties, Ḫuwaššanna, always described as "Ḫuwaššanna of Ḫupišna", appears as one of the members of a group referred to as "queen goddesses" in modern publications, which also includes Ḫantitaššu of Ḫurma, Abara of Šamuḫa,

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 wer ...

of Ankuwa, ^dŠARRAT of Katapa, Ammamma of Taḫurpa, Ḫallara of Dunna, Tapišuwa of Išḫupitta, ^dBELTI, Kuniywanni of Landa and ^dNIN.PISAN.PISAN of

Kinza was the Tokugawa shogunate's officially sanctioned gold monopoly or gold guild ('' za'') which was created in 1595. Initially, the Tokugawa shogunate was interested in assuring a consistent value in minted gold coins; and this led to the perceive ...

. In the oracle KUB 6.4 Ḫuwaššanna appears alongside a deity designated by the logogram ^d IŠTAR and the

Weather god of Nerik The Weather god of Nerik is a Hittite weather god, who was mainly worshipped in the Hittite city of Nerik, whose cult was relocated to Kaštama and Takupša for two hundred years after the Hittites lost Nerik to the Kaskians. He was also referred ...

, while in another text of this genre, IBoT 1.33, she is mentioned in a context also involving the (^dU ''Ḫal-pa'') and a royal palace.

Worship

Ḫuwaššanna was worshiped by both

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

and

Luwians The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...

. Piotr Taracha describes her as "one of the great goddesses of the Hittite state pantheon", while according to

Manfred Hutter Manfred Hutter (born 6 June 1957) is a professor at Bonn University. He is usually interested in writing about minority religion A minority religion is a religion held by a Minority group, minority of the population of state or which is otherwise ...

, she was one of the main goddesses in

, next to Maliya and Kamrušepa. She was the main goddess in the local pantheon of Ḫupišna, a city corresponding to Cybistra of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

and modern Ereğli. She was also worshiped in Kuliwišna. A festival text from the reign of

Tudḫaliya IV Tudḫaliya IV was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom), and the younger son of Ḫattušili III. He reigned –1215 BC (middle chronology) or –1209 BC (short chronology). His mother was the great queen, Puduḫepa. Early life Tud� ...

, KBo 12.59, indicates that the river Šalmaku was associated with her. A number of unique functionaries were involved in the

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

of Ḫuwaššanna. They included two types of priestesses, ''ḫuwaššannalli'' and ''alḫuitra''. Neither title is attested in association with other deities, and the name of the former was derived from that of the goddess they served. A healing formula of one of such specialists, a certain Bappi, is known from multiple tablets and might have been believed to cure

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or, less frequently, greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving ...

. In addition to the priestesses, EN.SISKUR, "lord of the offering", presumed to be a high-ranking member of the local population, was also involved in rites dedicated to Ḫuwaššanna which took place in Ḫupišna. A unique ritual object is also attested in texts pertaining to the worship of Ḫuwaššanna, ''ziyadu'', presumed to be a ladle. For unknown reasons, the unique classes of clergy are not attested in Kuliwišna. Multiple festivals focused on Ḫuwaššanna are known, including the fruit festival (EZEN₄.GURUN), the winter festival (EZEN₄ ''zenaš'') and a celebration of installation of a new ''alḫuitra''. Yet another festival, ''šaḫḫan'', involved distribution of bread among the participants, after which the ''alḫuitra'' priestesses partaking in it kissed each other. It is commonly assumed that many attested celebrations of Ḫuwaššanna were performed in private. However, this conclusion is not universally accepted. Ḫuwaššanna was no longer worshiped in the first millennium BCE.

References

Bibliography

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