Kataḫzipuri (also known as Kataḫziwuri) was a goddess worshiped by

Hattians The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...

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 Palaians in

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. She was associated with magic, and was commonly invoked in rituals dealing with healing and purification. She was closely associated with

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 ...

. In Palaic religion she formed a pair with

Ziparwa Ziparwa, originally known as Zaparwa, was the head of the pantheon of the Palaians, inhabitants of a region of northern Anatolia known as Pala (Anatolia), Pala in the Bronze Age. It is often assumed that he was a weather god in origin, though he w ...

and headed the pantheon alongside him.

Name and character

The theonym Kataḫzipuri has Hattic origin. Multiple spellings reflecting two variant forms, Kataḫzipuri and Kataḫziwuri, are attested 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 ...

texts discovered during excavations in Boğazköy (

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

) and Ortaköy (

Šapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital of Hattusa. It was one of the major Hittite ...

). Gabrielle Frantz-Szabó assumes it is derived from the words ''kattaḫ'', "queen", and ''pur'', "land". Oğuz Soysal disagrees with this interpretation and notes that in contrast with ''kattaḫ'', Kataḫzipuri's name was always written with a single ''t''. He speculatively suggests that it might mean "evil under the land", though he stresses this would not indicate she was viewed as malevolent, but rather that certain types of problems could be entrusted to her so that through her intervention they can metaphorically remain "under the land", perhaps to be understood as "in the underworld". Kataḫzipuri was considered the goddess of magic. Oğuz Soysal stresses that while Kataḫzipuri often functioned as a divine healer, there is also evidence for her spells sometimes being perceived as potentially dangerous, as reflected in the use of the Hattic term ''katakumi'' and its Hittite equivalent ''alwanzena'', "sorceress", to refer to her, and on this basis he states describing her as a goddess of magic is preferable. Kataḫzipuri was believed to reside in heaven. Some of the ritual texts invoking her start with the phrase "Kataḫzipuri saw from heaven", which prefaces the reveal of a solution to a specific issue, framed as the speech of the goddess. According to

Volkert Haas Volkert Haas (1 November 1936 – 13 May 2019) was a German Assyrologist and Hittitologist. __NOTOC__ Life Volkert Haas studied Assyrology and Near Eastern archaeology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Marburg from 1963 to ...

texts following this model were meant to highlight her helpful character.

Associations with other deities

As early as in the Old Hittite period, Kataḫzipuri came to be associated with

. In

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

Hattic- Hittite texts they correspond to each other. Volkert Haas interpreted them as two originally distinct goddesses who only came to be syncretised with each other in the Old Hittite period. Oğuz Soysal instead suggests that Kamrušepa was a name applied to Kataḫzipuri after her incorporation into the Hittite pantheon. He also points out that the Hattic name does not occur in

Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

sources at all, and on this basis suggests Kamrušepa had Luwian origin. argues that in

Palaic Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub ...

texts Kataḫzipuri might be an epithet designating a Palaic goddess identical with or analogous to Kamrušepa. However, the latter name does not occur in any texts written in Palaic. The Palaians considered Kataḫzipuri the spouse of

. These two deities occupied the most prominent position in their pantheon. In the ritual text KUB 56.17, Kataḫzipuri is invoked alongside

Papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

to dispel omens revealed in an unfavorable dream (Ù ḪUL). In incantations she could also be associated with deities such as Taru, the

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

Šulinkatte Šulinkatte was a Hittite god of Hattian origin. He was regarded as a war deity. Additionally, he could fulfill the role of a protector of palaces and houses. In the local tradition of Nerik, he was regarded as the father of the weather god of ...

Wurunkatte Wurunkatte or Wurukatte was a Hittite war god of Hattian origin. He might have also been connected to the institution of kingship. His symbol was a mace, and based on textual sources it is presumed he could be depicted standing on the back of a ...

and

Ḫannaḫanna Ḫannaḫanna (from Hittite ''ḫanna-'' "grandmother") was a Hittite mother goddess. Myths Ḫannaḫanna appears in a number of Hittite myths, and tends to help in solving the problems faced by other gods in them. Most of them are myths dea ...

Worship

According to Oğuz Soysal, Kataḫzipuri occurs relatively frequently in Hittite religious texts. She appears in a number of incantations and healing rituals, especially these dealing with

ritual purification Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification ...

. Kataḫzipuri was also worshiped by Palaians. Palaic religion is only known from ritual texts from the temple of

. Two of them,

CTH CTH or cth may refer to: Organizations, companies, and schools * CTH Public Company Limited, Thai cable and satellite TV company * Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, Sweden * Honduras Workers' Confederation - Confederación de Tr ...

643 and CTH 750, mention Kataḫzipuri. In this context, she appears as a member of a group which also includes Ziparwa,

Ḫašamili Ḫašamili (also romanized as Ḫašammili; the variant Ḫašameli appears in the text CTH 617) was a god worshiped in Bronze Age Anatolia. He originated in religious beliefs of the Hattians, and later came to be incorporated into the Hittite, ...

Kammamma Kammamma (also romanized as Kamama) was a Hattian god worshiped by Hittites and Palaians. He belonged to the category of tutelary deities ( D LAMMA) and might have been associated with vegetation. He attained a degree of importance in the Hittit ...

, , and .

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{cite book, last=Taracha, first=Piotr, title=Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, series=Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie, volume=27, publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag, publication-place=Wiesbaden, year=2009, isbn=978-3447058858 Hittite deities Hattian deities Palaic mythology Magic goddesses