Anatolian religion

Introduction

      beliefs and practices of the ancient peoples and civilizations of Turkey and Armenia, including the Hittites, Hattians, Luwians, Hurrians, Assyrian colonists, Urartians, and Phrygians. For historical background, see Anatolia.

Sources of modern knowledge

      Until comparatively recent times, the pre-Christian religions of Anatolia (Asia Minor) were known only through the works of classical writers. For the Greeks and Romans, Asia Minor was above all the home of the religion of Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, whose cult was centred in Phrygian Pessinus. A monument such as the colossal, but much weathered, figure of a Hittite goddess carved high up on the slopes of Mount Sipylus (near Manisa) was of necessity ascribed by the 2nd-century-AD Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias to the Mother of the Gods, since no other ancient Anatolian goddess was known to him.

      During the 19th century many such pre-classical rock reliefs and inscribed monuments were reported by travelers, but it was the discovery of the royal Hittite archives at Boğazköy (ancient Hattusa) in 1907 that made available for the first time a mass of indigenous literary evidence for an Anatolian civilization belonging to the 2nd millennium BC, before the arrival of the Phrygians. Because of the discovery of these archives, written on clay tablets, the religion of the Hittites necessarily predominates in any account of the early religions of Asia Minor. Later Hittite history has been further clarified by the decipherment of the Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions on monuments dating for the most part from the early centuries of the 1st millennium BC, after the downfall of Hattusa. For the same period, the cuneiform inscriptions of the kingdom of Urartu in the region of Lake Van contain some information on the religion of that area, though they are mostly concerned with other matters.

      The clay tablets of Assyrian commercial colonists found at Kültepe, Alişar, and Boğazköy belong to the period immediately preceding the rise of the kingdom of Hattusa, but they contain little information bearing on the life of the indigenous population. For all earlier periods, scholars are dependent on the inarticulate data of archaeology—isolated finds, the interpretation of which leaves a large element of uncertainty.

Prehistoric periods

      The earliest evidence of religious beliefs has come to light at the mound of Çatal Hüyük (Çatalhüyük), to the south of modern Konya. Here in four seasons of excavations (1961–65), James Mellaart discovered remains of a Neolithic village of mud-brick houses, many of which could be identified as shrines. They are dated by radiocarbon to about 6500–5800 BC (calculated with a half-life of 5,730 years). Huge figures (sculpture) of goddesses in the posture of giving birth, leopards, and the heads of bulls and rams are modeled in high relief on the walls of some of these shrines. Others contain frescoes showing elaborate scenes such as the hunting of deer and aurochs, or vultures devouring headless human corpses. A series of stone and terra-cotta statuettes found in these shrines represent a female figure, sometimes accompanied by leopards and, from the earlier levels of excavation, a male either bearded and seated on a bull or youthful and riding a leopard. The main deity of these Neolithic people was evidently a goddess, a mistress of animals, with whom were associated both a son and a consort. Her character is vividly shown by a schist plaque carved to represent two scenes, a sacred marriage and a mother with child. The dead appear to have been excarnated in a mortuary outside the village by exposure to vultures, as shown in the painting, before being buried under the platforms in the houses.

      At Hacilar, near Lake Burdur, a somewhat later culture was unearthed by the same excavator, and here again were found statuettes of goddesses associated with felines; but, as in the later levels at Çatal Hüyük, the son or consort is absent.

 Entirely different and far removed in time and place are the discoveries at Alaca Hüyük and Horoztepe in northern Anatolia. Here, dating from the latter half of the 3rd millennium BC (c. 2400–2200), were found royal tombs richly furnished with artifacts in bronze and precious metals. Beside the heads of skeletons lay female figurines; one such figure found in a grave at Horoztepe represents a mother nursing her child. Many of the objects found in these graves must have had ritual significance. At Horoztepe a bronze sistrum, or rattle, was found. But the outstanding feature of the graves at both sites is the occurrence of bronze standards, which may have been carried on poles. They are openwork objects of circular or occasionally rhomboid form and are adorned with figures of animals (bulls, stags [see photograph—>], and, in one instance, felines), birds, flowers, and swastikas and other geometric patterns. Other standards, consisting of simple statuettes of stags or bulls, also occur.

      The archaeological finds of central Anatolia follow immediately after the period of these royal tombs from the Pontic region. Kültepe, near Kayseri, became in the 19th century BC the centre of Assyrian trading outposts (kārum); but from the mound itself, from a level just prior to the foundation of the Assyrian colonies, have come a series of remarkable statuettes. The majority of these are abstract, disk-shaped idols without limbs; many of them have two, three, or even four heads, and others bear on their chests small male figures in relief, in one case accompanied by a lion. There can be little doubt that here again is a representation of a divine family—a mother goddess with consort and child or children. From a level at Boğazköy contemporary with Kültepe comes a limestone mold of a “mistress of animals,” a nude goddess standing on a pair of felines and holding aloft an animal in either hand. Molds for a pair of figures, a bearded god and a goddess—the god carries various weapons or emblems, the goddess in most instances holds a baby—have been found at several sites at a somewhat later level.

      Though the Old Assyrian tablets are concerned exclusively with commercial matters, the seal impressions that they bear contain a new and elaborate system of religious symbolism ( iconography) that later reached its maturity under the Hittites. Here a whole pantheon of deities, some recognizably Mesopotamian, others native Anatolian, are distinguished by such features as dress, attendant animals, weapons, actions, and attitudes. Among them are several weather gods, all associated with a bull, but distinguished in various ways; the weather is depicted in the form of rain falling above the god. A bull alone, carrying an enigmatic pyramid upon its back, sometimes surmounted by a bird, is a particularly common motif and probably symbolizes a weather god. Other deities are a war god holding various weapons, a hunting god holding a bird or hare, a god in a horse-drawn chariot, another in a wagon drawn by boars, a goddess enthroned and surrounded by animals, a nude goddess, and several composite beings. On many seals the deity—and especially the bull with the pyramid—is shown receiving ritual offerings.

Religions of the Hittites, Hattians, and Hurrians

      An interval of only a few decades separates the end of the Assyrian colony period from the earliest records of the kingdom of Hatti, and for the next five centuries (c. 1700–1200 BC) the history of Asia Minor is well documented. The texts reveal a country inhabited by a number of distinct peoples. The Hittites in the centre, the Luwians in the south and west, and the Palaians in the north were speakers of related Indo-European languages. In the southeast were the Hurrians, comparatively late arrivals from the region of Lake Urmia. The Hattians, whose language appears to have become extinct, were most probably the earliest inhabitants of the kingdom of Hatti itself.

      Each of these nations had its own pantheon, and individual cult centres had their own names for deities. The result is a bewildering number of divine names, and even when a deity is denoted not by a name but by a logogram (sign or signs standing for a word) to indicate weather god, sun god, moon god, and so forth, it seems that the deity of each city was regarded by the Hittite theologians as a distinct personality. There are even special weather gods, such as the weather god of the lightning, the weather god of the clouds, the weather god of the rain, the weather god of the palace, the weather god of the royal person, the weather god of the sceptre, and the weather god of the army, each again conceived as a separate personality. To us these are simply manifestations or aspects of a single deity, and this is reflected to some extent in the iconography, the pattern of religious symbolism, in which, as in the preceding period, there is a well-defined and limited number of divine types. Often deities were represented by a symbol on clubs and other weapons. An example is the rock carving of a sword deity in Yazılıkaya (Inscribed Rock) near Boğazköy. A human head tops the hilt, which is carved in the form of four crouching lions.

The pantheon

      The most widely worshiped deity of Hittite Anatolia was clearly the weather god, as befits a country dependent on rain for its fertility; and under the title “weather god of Hatti” he became the chief deity of the official pantheon, a great figure who bestowed kingship, brought victory in war, and probably represented the nation in its dealings with foreign powers. Thus the treaty with Egypt is said to be “for the purpose of making eternal the relations which the sun-god [of Egypt] and the weather-god [of Hatti] have established for the Land of Egypt and the Land of Hatti.” His name in Luwian, and probably also in Hittite, was Tarhun (Tarhund); in Hattic he was called Taru, and in Hurrian, Teshub. He is associated with the sacred bull and appears on monuments either attended by a pair of divine bulls or driving over mountains in a chariot drawn by bulls. In the cult itself Tarhun might even be represented by a bull.

      As Tarhun's spouse, the great goddess of the city of Arinna was exalted as patroness of the state. (Arinna has not been located, but it was situated somewhere in the heartland of the Hittite kingdom, within a day's journey of the capital.) Her name in Hattic was Wurusemu, but the Hittites worshiped her under the epithet Arinnitti. She is always called a sun goddess (sun worship), and sun disks appear as emblems in her cult, but there are indications that she may originally have had chthonic, or underworld, characteristics. As “sun goddess of the earth” she might be identified with Lelwani, the ruler of the netherworld. The king and queen were her high priest and priestess.

      The weather god of another city, Nerik, was regarded as the son of this supreme pair, and they had daughters named Mezzulla and Hulla and a granddaughter, Zintuhi. Telipinu was another son of the weather god and had similar attributes. He was a central figure in the Hittite myths.

      There was also a male sun god, distinct from the sun goddess of Arinna, a special form of whom was the “sun god in the water,” probably the sun as reflected in the waters of a lake. His name in Hittite was Istanu, borrowed from the Hattic Estan (Luwian Tiwat, Hurrian Shimegi). There was also a moon god (Hittite and Luwian Arma, Hurrian Kushukh), but he plays little part in the texts. In the iconography, the sun god was represented in the robes of the king, whose title was “My Sun”; the moon god was shown as a winged figure with a crescent on his helmet, sometimes standing on a lion. According to official theology there also existed a sun god or goddess of the underworld. In this place resided the Sun on its journey from west to east during the night.

      The god of hunting appears frequently on Hittite monuments; he holds a bird and a hare, as on the Kültepe seals, and he stands on a stag, his sacred animal. From descriptions of the statues it appears that this is the deity denoted in the texts by the logogram KAL, to be read Kurunda or Tuwata, later Ruwata, Runda. The war god also appears, though his Hittite name is concealed behind the logogram ZABABA, the name of the Mesopotamian war god. His Hattic name was Wurunkatti, his Hurrian counterpart Hesui. His Hattic name meant “king of the land.”

      The Hittite goddess of love and war is similarly disguised under the logogram of the Babylonian Ishtar; she was evidently much revered and was the special protectress of Hattusilis III. Her Hurrian name was Shaushka. As a warrior goddess she was represented as a winged figure standing on a lion with a peculiar robe gathered at the knees and accompanied by doves and two female attendants.

      There was a mother goddess, Hannahanna “the grandmother,” closely associated with birth, creation, and destiny, but the theologians appear to have regarded her as a minor deity.

      It is impossible to enumerate the lesser deities, many of whom are mere names to us. Among them were many mountains, rivers, and springs, and the spirits of past kings and queens who had “become gods” at death. Demons are conspicuous by their absence; sickness and misfortune were ascribed either to sorcery or to divine retribution.

      During the later years of the Hittite kingdom, the state cult came under strong Hurrian influence. The sun goddess of Arinna and the weather god of Nerik were identified with the Hurrian queen of the gods, Hebat, and her son, Sharruma; and at Yazılıkaya, where a rocky outcrop forming a natural open chamber was adorned with a series of 64 bas-reliefs that represented the national pantheon, every identifiable deity bears a Hurrian name written in Hittite hieroglyphs. The central group is recognizable as the family of the sun goddess, but she is named Hepatu, her son Sharruma. They both stand on felines, she, perhaps, on a lion or lioness, and he on a panther. The Hittites had here already begun a process of assimilation.

Gods and men

      The gods were imagined to have their own lives, though also needing the service of their worshipers, who in turn were dependent on the gods for their well-being. They lived in their temples, where they had to be fed, clothed, washed, and entertained. Part of their time, however, might be spent in heaven or in roaming the sea or the mountains. They might withdraw in anger and so cause life on Earth to wither and cease. One of the most characteristic rituals of the Hittites was the invocation by which a god who had absented himself was induced to return and attend to his duties by a combination of prayer and magic.

      The relation between man and god resembled that between servant and master. “If a servant has committed an offence and confesses his guilt before his master, his master may do with him whatever he pleases; but because he has confessed his guilt . . . his master's spirit is appeased and he will not call that servant to account.” Confession and expiation form the main theme of the extant royal prayers.

divination

      Divination, through which the cause of divine displeasure was ascertained, was mainly of three kinds: augury (divination by flight of birds), haruspicy (divination by examining the entrails of sacrificial animals), and an enigmatic procedure using tokens with symbolic names, arts said to be practiced respectively by the “bird-watcher,” the seer, and the “old woman.” The omens, as interpreted by these experts, were either favourable or unfavourable and would give a yes or no answer according to the sense of the question put to them. In this way, by a lengthy process of elimination, it was possible to determine the precise offence that required expiation. Haruspicy was a science inherited by the Hittites from the Babylonian seers. The other two methods of divination seem to have been indigenous to Asia Minor.

The cult

      The Hittite records at Boğazköy give abundant evidence for a state (church and state) religious cult. The king himself and all important state matters, including royal decrees and treaties, were placed under the protection of national deities.

      The proper conduct for temple personnel was laid down in a tablet of instructions that gives some insight into the organization of a temple. Divine vengeance is threatened against those who misappropriate food or drink brought for sacrifice, who admit unclean animals or unauthorized persons into the temples, who purloin vessels or implements belonging to the god, who fail to celebrate festivals (feast) at the proper time, and who desert their posts to spend the night with their wives.

      Many extant texts consist of descriptions of festivals in which the king or queen is the chief officiant. These festivals were numerous, but their names are largely unintelligible. Many of them were seasonal. The preliminary details, such as the robing of the king and his entry into the temple, accompanied by various dignitaries and by musicians playing their instruments, differed little from one festival to another. Owing to the very large number of fragmentary texts, it has not yet been possible to discern special characteristics of the festivals. They invariably culminated in libations and frequently in a cultic meal. One such festival lasted 38 days and involved celebrations in a dozen different cities.

burial customs

      The tablets from Boǧazköy have yielded much information about the burial practices of the Hittites. There was a burial ritual for a king or queen that lasted 13 days and in which the body was cremated (cremation) and the fire extinguished with potable liquids. The bones were then dipped in oil or fat and wrapped in cloth. A feast followed their placement on a stool in a stone chamber. Although cremations were practiced, burial of the body in an earthen grave was not uncommon. In 1952 Kurt Bittel excavated two sites near Yazılıkaya, close to a natural rock outcrop. One site contained 72 burials, 50 of which were cremations. The other site contained only cremations, and the presence of some precious objects among them suggests that these might be burials of privileged persons.

Mythology (myth)

      In Anatolia itself myth seems to have remained on a rather primitive level. Such myths are found embedded in magical or ritual texts, aimed at curing diseases, ensuring good fortune, and the like.

      A particularly well-attested type of myth occurs in connection with the invocation of an absent god and tells how the god once disappeared and caused a blight on Earth, how he was sought and found, and eventually returned to restore life and vigour. In one such myth the weather god withdraws in anger and the search is conducted by the sun god (whose messenger is an eagle), the father of the weather god, his grandfather, and his grandmother Hannahanna. In another, it is Telipinu who is angry, and the gods who search are the sun god, the weather god, and Hannahanna, the grandfather being omitted. In both these versions, the missing god is found by a bee sent forth by Hannahanna. In another similar story, the sun god and Telipinu are both missing, not from anger, but because they have been seized by “Torpor,” which has paralyzed nature. In yet another version, the weather god of Nerik is said to have gone down to the netherworld through a hole in the ground, apparently the hole from which the river Marassantiya (modern Kızıl Irmak) gushed forth, which suggests that this weather god may really have been a god of the underground waters.

      Another myth, “The Slaying of the Dragon,” connected with the Hattian city Nerik, was apparently recited at a great annual spring festival called Purulli. It tells how the weather god fought the dragon and was at first defeated, but subsequently, by means of a ruse (of which there are two quite distinct versions), succeeded in getting the better of him and killing him.

      Other mythological tales of Hittite and Hattian deities existed, but they are too fragmentarily preserved to give any connected story.

      The elaborate epic of the struggle against Ullikummi, and the Theogony, though written in Hittite, are Hurrian in origin and refer to Hurrian and even Mesopotamian deities. The Theogony tells of the struggle for kingship among the gods. Alalu, after holding the kingship for nine years, was defeated by Anu (the Babylonian sky god) and went down to the netherworld. Anu in his turn, after nine years, gave way to Kumarbi, a Hurrian god, and went up to heaven. Eventually the weather god Teshub was born, and though the god KAL apparently reigned for a period, and the end of the tale is lost, it is certain that Teshub was the final victor, for there are many allusions to the “former gods” who were banished to the netherworld by him. The conception itself derives from Babylonia.

      The “Song of Ullikummi” tells of a plot by Kumarbi to depose Teshub from his supremacy by begetting a monstrous stone as champion. Ullikummi, the stone monster, grows in the sea, which reaches his waist, while his head touches the sky; he stands on the shoulder of Upelluri, an Atlas figure who carries heaven and earth (Ea). Teshub is warned of the danger and goes out to battle in his chariot drawn by bulls, but he fails and appeals for help to Ea (Babylonian god of wisdom). The latter orders the “former gods” to produce the ancient tool by which heaven and earth had once been cut apart (the only surviving hint of a Hittite creation myth), and with this he severs Ullikummi from the giant and so destroys his power. Again the end is lost, but it is certain that the final victory went to Teshub.

Religions of successor states

      When Hattusa fell, in about 1180 BC, the Luwians moved eastward and southward into Cappadocia, Cilicia, and North Syria. Here they formed a number of small successor kingdoms. Shortly afterward the Phrygians crossed the Bosporus from Thrace and occupied the centre of the Anatolian plateau, cutting off in the extreme southwest a remnant of the Luwian people, who became known as the Lycians and maintained their reverence for the Luwian gods Tarhun, Runda, Arma, and Santa into classical times.

      The East Luwians, whose rulers used the Hittite hieroglyphic script to record their deeds, worshiped these same deities; but their chief goddess was Kubaba, who hardly appears in the archives of Hattusa except as the local goddess of Carchemish in Syria. Her prominence was due to political factors, for Carchemish was then the leading Hittite city.

      The traditional Hittite iconography survived but was gradually permeated by Aramaic and Assyrian influences. Orthostats (stone slabs set at the base of a wall) from Malatya on the Euphrates show Tarhun in his bull-drawn chariot receiving libations from a king dressed in his traditional robes, and there is a relief showing his battle with the dragon. At Carchemish was found a representation of the winged moon god with the sun god, both standing on a single lion. Kubaba appears enthroned, the throne resting on a lion. Runda (the Hittite Kurunda or KAL) is regularly symbolized by a stag's head or antler.

Urartu

      In the far east of Anatolia, the Hurrian nation formed around Lake Van a new kingdom, which rose to considerable power, from about 900 to 600 BC. With few exceptions, the cuneiform inscriptions of this kingdom of Urartu are historical and reveal nothing of its religion, except the names of deities. The national god was Haldi, and he is associated with a weather god, Tesheba, a sun goddess, Shiwini (compare Hurrian Teshub and Shimegi), and a goddess, Bagbartu (or Bagmashtu). Haldi is represented standing on a lion, Tesheba on a bull, Shiwini holding a winged sun disk above her head. The cult was practiced not only in temples (one of which is shown in detail on an Assyrian relief) but also in front of rock-hewn niches in the form of gates through which the deity was probably believed to manifest himself.

The Phrygians

      Little would be known of the religion of the Phrygians but for the fact that in 204 BC the Roman Senate, on the instructions of the priests, who had consulted the Sibylline books, had the sacred black stone of the Phrygian Mother goddess, Cybele, or Cybebe (Great Mother of the Gods), transported from Pessinus, together with her priests, and installed in a temple on the Palatine. As a result, there is much information about the cult and its mythology, though it must be remembered that during 200 years of Persian rule Anatolia had been exposed to many alien influences from the east, which may have affected this cult.

      The high priest of Cybele was given the name of Attis, and—at least in later times—she was attended by a band of fanatical devotees called Galli, whose orgiastic dancing, at the climax of which they castrated themselves in their ecstasy, was notorious.

      The cult myth of these rites told how Cybele (known at Pessinus as Agdistis, from Mount Agdos [or Mount Agdistis] in the vicinity) loved a beautiful youth named Attis. According to the earliest version, Attis was killed, as was the Syrian Adonis, by a boar. All later versions, however, refer to wild revelry and castration. Agdistis is a bisexual monster who is trapped by Bacchus and castrated; Attis is betrothed to a daughter of Midas (or Gallus, the king of Pessinus); the wedding guests are driven mad by Cybele, and first Midas, then Attis, castrates himself, the latter as he lies beneath a pine tree; in one version Attis is turned into a pine tree. A poem by Catullus describes how a young Greek wanderer named Attis was caught up in the revels and sacrificed his virility, only to be prostrated later with remorse. The “Phrygian rites” introduced into Rome by Claudius included the ceremonious felling of a pine tree to represent the dead youth and its transport in procession to the temple. Still later, the sacrifice of a bull and the belief in the resurrection of Attis were added to the cult.

      How much of this myth belonged to the original cult of the Phrygian Mother goddess is questionable. Herodotus, in describing the celebration of the rites by the legendary Scythian sage Anacharsis, mentions only that he did so in a grove, that he carried a timbrel (a small hand drum or tambourine), and that he fastened images about his person. There is no suggestion of orgiastic rites.

      In Asia Minor itself, the cult of Cybele is marked by carved rock facades with niches or by rock-hewn thrones, on which the statue would be set; in front of these, the rites were celebrated in the open air. Cybele was a goddess of the mountains, out of which she was believed to manifest herself to her devotees. Representations of the goddess show her in her niche, sometimes flanked by lions, draped in a long garment and wearing a high polos (cylindrical crown or headdress) or with bared breasts and flanked by musicians. Her name and her association with the lion cannot be separated from the Hittite Kubaba, whose cult had spread from Carchemish to the borders of Phrygia, but the process by which this matronly figure was transformed into the Mountain Mother of the Phrygians can only be surmised.

      The goddess Ma of Comana, despite her name (Mother), was regarded at least by the Romans as a deity distinct from Cybele and was identified with the war goddess Bellona. Her relationship to the ancient Hittite-Hurrian goddess Hebat of Kummanni (= Comana) remains obscure, for there is no evidence that the latter was a goddess of war.

      The god Men, who appears on numerous monuments of the Hellenistic period, was an equestrian moon god, later identified with Attis and with the Thracian Sabazius. He is basically the Persian moon god Mao, as (Artemis) Anaitis is the Persian Anahita.

Conclusion

      Asia Minor shows a remarkable continuity in its worship. From the Neolithic Period, for 6,000 years, the population venerated a divine pair, mother goddess and weather god, the former in association with the lion, the latter with the bull; a divine son, associated with the panther; and a god of hunting whose symbolic animal was the stag. To the ancients, for whom the essence of a thing lay in its name, this continuity was less obvious than it is today. The many names under which the deities were known at different times and places appear to us of less significance, in a religious sense, than the constancy of the types.

Oliver Robert Gurney

Additional Reading

A. Götze, Kleinasien, 2nd rev. ed. (1957, reprinted 1974), part of the series “Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft,” is a classic work covering all periods of Asia Minor religion. Ekrem Akurgal and Max Hirmer, The Art of the Hittites (1962), provides an excellent presentation of Hittite and pre-Hittite art and iconography. Maurice Vieyra, Hittite Art, 2300–750 B.C. (1955), is also useful. Seton Lloyd, Early Highland Peoples of Anatolia (1967), is a popular but excellent account of all periods, with many illustrations. Works on Hittite civilization and religion include O.R. Gurney, “Hittite Kingship,” in S.H. Hooke (ed.), Myth, Ritual, and Kingship: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Near East and in Israel (1958), pp. 105–121, The Hittites, 2nd ed. rev. (1990), a general description, and Some Aspects of Hittite Religion (1977); and Hans G. Güterbock, “Hittite Religion,” in V. Ferm (ed.), Forgotten Religions (1950, reissued 1970), pp. 83–109, and “Hittite Mythology,” in Samuel Noah Kramer (ed.), Mythologies of the Ancient World (1961, reprinted 1989), pp. 141–179. James Mellaart, Çatal Hüyük (1967), presents an illustrated account of the evidence from Catal Hüyük and Hacilar. Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1911, reprinted 1956), is a classic. A three-part study by E.N. Lane, “A Re-Study of the God Men,” Berytus, 15:5–58 (1964), 17: 13–47 and 81–106 (1967–68), offers a valuable summary of work on Men and Cybele.Oliver Robert Gurney

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