Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia
Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia

Author: Piotr Taracha

Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9783447058858

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines Hittite religion from a historical point of view, stressing two basically different stages in its development. The Old Hittite pantheon of the capital Hattu'a maintains the indigenous religious tradition of the Hattians without any trace of Mesopotamian, Hurrian or Syrian influence, although Hittite and Luwian deities were worshiped in the family and house cults. The Hittite religion of the Empire period has been examined from a new viewpoint. At the time there were two offi cial pantheons in the state and the dynastic cult respectively. The former is an amalgam of Hattian, Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian, Syrian and Mesopotamian deities organized on a geographical principle, whereas the latter is purely Hurrian, refl ecting the religious beliefs of the new royal family of Kizzuwatnan origin that also infl uenced local pantheons of central and northern Anatolia. Through the Hurrians, Mesopotamian and Syrian cults were adopted. Simultaneously, many aspects of the Luwian religious tradition were absorbed into both the state and local cults.

The Solar Deities of Bronze Age Anatolia
The Solar Deities of Bronze Age Anatolia

Author: Charles W. Steitler

Publisher: Harrassowitz

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783447107983

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Solar deities are some of the most significant and diverse figures of the pantheon revealed in the cuneiform tablets of the Hittites. Drawn from a wide range of Anatolian and Syro-Mesopotamian traditions, the Hittite solar deities include Sun-gods and -goddesses who display an array of differing attributes and represent both the celestial and chthonic spheres. Yet the relevant sources (for the most part written in Hittite, but also in other languages) do not necessarily distinguish these solar deities from one another by proper names or distinct logograms. Previous elucidations of the solar deities rested in many respects upon doubtful methodologies or tenuous axioms. This study provides a new approach to distinguishing the solar deities by combining diachronic and typological criteria with careful attention to the cultural milieu of the individual source texts. From this methodology emerges a functional description of the sub-types of solar deities as they relate to various Hittite cult practices, mythological traditions, the systematic conceptualization of the pantheon as well as the Hittite ideology of kingship. Separate treatments of Old and Middle Hittite texts highlight both innovation and continuity of the role of the solar deities in the history of Hittite religion. A model is proposed as to how the solar deities came to co-exist in the religion of one of the major Bronze Age civilizations of the Near East. Furthermore, by considering all text genres from the early Hittite kingdom, this monograph serves as a useful synthetic compendium of sources both of the Hittite solar deities and of the formative period of Hittite religion in general.

Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria
Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria

Author: Livio Warbinek

Publisher: Firenze University Press

Published:

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The topic of the Anatolian panthea in the Bronze Age deals with Hattian, Hittite, Palaean, Luwian and Hurrian gods who have been worshiped in the Kingdom of Ḫatti. In such a context, along with trying to keep a balanced and methodologically-aware approach in our original research, we realized that a multi-authored work such as the present volume, with papers written by some of the major experts of Anatolian religious history, would represent an invaluable contribution to the advancement of a complex and vast field. This collection of essays is the result of the workshop Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria, held at the University of Verona on 25th and 26th March 2022. Colleagues with different areas of expertise pertaining to the topic of Anatolian religions contributed to an extremely successful event.

The Splintered Divine
The Splintered Divine

Author: Spencer L. Allen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-03-05

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1614512361

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates the issue of the singularity versus the multiplicity of ancient Near Eastern deities who are known by a common first name but differentiated by their last names, or geographic epithets. It focuses primarily on the Ištar divine names in Mesopotamia, Baal names in the Levant, and Yahweh names in Israel, and it is structured around four key questions: How did the ancients define what it meant to be a god - or more pragmatically, what kind of treatment did a personality or object need to receive in order to be considered a god by the ancients? Upon what bases and according to which texts do modern scholars determine when a personality or object is a god in an ancient culture? In what ways are deities with both first and last names treated the same and differently from deities with only first names? Under what circumstances are deities with common first names and different last names recognizable as distinct independent deities, and under what circumstances are they merely local manifestations of an overarching deity? The conclusions drawn about the singularity of local manifestations versus the multiplicity of independent deities are specific to each individual first name examined in accordance with the data and texts available for each divine first name.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt

Author: Nicola Laneri

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-06-29

Total Pages: 527

ISBN-13: 1350280836

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With contributions spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age, this book offers important insights into the religions and ritual practices in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern communities through the lenses of their material remains. The book begins with a theoretical introduction to the concept of material religion and features editor introductions to each of its six parts, which tackle the following themes: the human body; religious architecture; the written word; sacred images; the spirituality of animals; and the sacred role of the landscape. Illustrated with over 100 images, chapters provide insight into every element of religion and materiality, from the largest building to the smallest amulet. This is a benchmark work for further studies on material religion in the ancient Near East and Egypt.

Religious Convergence in the Ancient Mediterranean
Religious Convergence in the Ancient Mediterranean

Author: Sandra Blakely

Publisher: Lockwood Press

Published: 2019-12-15

Total Pages: 597

ISBN-13: 1948488175

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together scholars in religion, archaeology, philology, and history to explore case studies and theoretical models of converging religions. The twenty-four essays offered in this volume, which derive from Hittite, Cilician, Lydian, Phoenician, Greek, and Roman cultural settings, focus on encounters at the boundaries of cultures, landscapes, chronologies, social class and status, the imaginary, and the materially operative. Broad patterns ultimately emerge that reach across these boundaries, and suggest the state of the question on the study of convergence, and the potential fruitfulness for comparative and interdisciplinary studies as models continue to evolve.