Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite

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 ...

. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti".

Name

Tarḫunna is a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

of the Hittite verb ''tarḫu-^zi'', "to prevail, conquer, be powerful, be able, defeat"; from the Proto-Anatolian weather god ''*Tṛḫu-ent-,'' "conquering"; ultimately from PIE ''*terh₂-'', "to cross over, pass through, overcome". The same name was used in almost all Anatolian languages: Luwian '' Tarḫunz-''; Carian ''Trquδ-''; Milyan ''Trqqñt-'', and Lycian: ''Trqqas'' (A), ''Trqqiz'' (B). Norbert Oettinger has argued that the functions of the Anatolian weather god ultimately come from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

god Perk^wunos, but that they did not preserve the old name to coin instead the new epithet ''Tṛḫu-ent-'' ("conquering"), which sounded close to the name of the Hattian Storm-god ''Taru''.

Role

As weather god, Tarḫunna was responsible for the various manifestations of the weather, especially thunder, lightning, rain, clouds, and storms. He ruled over the heavens and the mountains. Thus it was Tarḫunna who decided whether there would be fertile fields and good harvests, or drought and famine and he was treated by the Hittites as the ruler of the gods. Tarḫunna legitimised the position of the Hittite king, who ruled the land of Hatti in the name of the gods. He watched over the kingdom and the other institutions of the state, but also borders and roads.

Genealogy

Tarḫunna is the partner of the Sun goddess of Arinna. Their children are the gods Telipinu and Kammamma, the goddesses Mezulla and Inara, the Weather god of Zippalanda and the Weather god of Nerik. As a result of his identification with the Hurrian god Teššup, Tarḫunna is also the partner of Ḫepat (who is syncretised with the Sun goddess of Arinna) and the father of the god Šarruma and the goddesses Allanzu and Kunzišalli. His siblings are Šuwaliyat (identified with the Hurrian

Tašmišu Tašmišu (Tashmishu) was a Hurrian god. He was regarded as a brother of Teshub, and it is assumed he had a warlike character. Character Volkert Haas proposed that Tašmišu's name was derived from the Hurrian language, Hurrian word ''tašmi'', ...

) and Aranzaḫ, the goddess of the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

river.

Depictions

Tarḫunna was the chief god of the

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 is depicted at the front of a long line of male gods in rock reliefs at the sanctuary of Yazılıkaya. There he is depicted as a bearded man with a pointed cap and a sceptre, standing on the backs of the mountain gods Namni and Ḫazzi and holding a three-pronged thunderbolt in his hand. Later depictions show him with a battle axe in the form of an adze.

Equivalents

The god had cognates in most other ancient Anatolian languages. In Hattian (a non-Indo-European language), he was called Taru; in Luwian,

Tarḫunz Tarḫunz (stem: ''Tarḫunt-'') was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub. Name The name of the Pro ...

(Cuneiform: ''Tarḫu(wa)nt(a)-'', Hieroglyphic: DEUS TONITRUS); in Palaic, Zaparwa; in Lycian, Trqqas/Trqqiz; and in Carian, Trquδe (dat.). In the wider Mesopotamian sphere, he was associated with Hadad and Teššup. The Luwian god

worshipped by the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

Neo-Hittite states was closely related to Tarḫunna. Personal names referring to Tarḫunz, like "Trokondas", are attested into Roman times. Tarhunna has also been identified with the later Armenian and Roman god, Jupiter Dolichenus.

References

Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 93 (). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 107 (). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 46 f. (). Maciej Popko: ''Völker und Sprachen Altanatoliens''. Wiesbaden 2008, p. 107. Volkert Haas, Heidemarie Koch: ''Religionen des alten Orients: Hethiter und Iran''. Göttingen 2011, p. 228. Volkert Haas, Heidemarie Koch: ''Religionen des alten Orients: Hethiter und Iran''. Göttingen 2011, p. 211 f. Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 46 (). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 52 (). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 91 (). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 119(). Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia.'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 45 (). Calvert Watkins: "The Golden Bowl: Thoughts on the New Sappho and its Asianic Background." ''Classical Antiquity.'' 26, 2007, S. 321 f. Calvert Watkins: ''How to Kill a Dragon. Aspects of Indo-European Poetics.'' Oxford University Press, New York u. a. 1995, , p. 430
Online
in archive.org). Tyler Jo Smith: "Votive Reliefs from Balboura and Its Environs." ''Anatolian Studies.'' 47, 1997, , pp. 3–49, at p. 36; Philo H. Houwink Ten Cate: ''The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera during the Hellenistic Period'' (= ''Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui.'' Volume 10). Brill, Leiden 1961, , pp. 125 ff. (Doctoral thesis 1961, Amsterdam University).

Bibliography

* Gerhard J. Bellinger: ''Knaurs Lexikon der Mythologie. 3100 Stichwörter zu den Mythen aller Völker von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart.'' Droemer Knaur, München 1989, . * Volkert Haas: ''Die hethitische Literatur. Texte, Stilistik, Motive.'' de Gruyter, Berlin. 2006, . * Volkert Haas, Heidemarie Koch: ''Religionen des alten Orients: Hethiter und Iran''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, . * John David Hawkins: "What does the Hittite Storm-God hold?" In: Diederik J. W. Meijer (Ed.): ''Natural Phenomena. Their Meaning, Depiction and Description in the Ancient Near East'' (= ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde. Verhandelingen.'' Volume 152). North-Holland, Amsterdam. 1992, , pp. 53–82. * Einar von Schuler: "Kleinasien: Die Mythologie der Hethiter und Hurriter – Der Hauptwettergott." In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig (Ed.): ''Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient'' (= ''Wörterbuch der Mythologie.'' Part 1: ''Die alten Kulturvölker.'' Volume 1). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 208–212, at p. 209–210. * Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia'' (= ''Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie.'' Volume 27). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, . * Maciej Popko: ''Völker und Sprachen Altanatoliens''. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, . * Calvert Watkins: "The Golden Bowl: Thoughts on the New Sappho and its Asianic Background." ''Classical Antiquity.'' Volume 26, 2007, pp. 305–324.

External links

* Daniel Schwemer
Taru / Tarchun(t)
In Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Ed.): ''Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet'' (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff. June 2006. {{Authority control Hittite deities Sky and weather gods