Ḫalmašuit
Deified throne, protective goddess of kings
Other namesḪanwašuit
Major cult centerKanesh, Hattusa, Ḫarpiša

Ḫalmašuit (Hattic Ḫanwašuit[1]) was a goddess worshiped by Hattians and Hittites in Bronze Age Anatolia. She was the divine representation of a ceremonial throne, and acted as both an embodiment of royal authority and as a protective deity of kings.

Name and character

The original Hattic form of the theonym Ḫalmašuit was Ḫanwašuit, with the phonetic change reflecting her adoption by the Hittites.[2] It can be translated as "he (or she) sits on her", with n(i)waš meaning "to sit", ḫa being a locative prefix, and it a feminine suffix.[3] In both Hattic and Hittite the name is identical with the word for throne,[4] though they were written with different determinatives, respectively DINGIR and GIŠ.[5] The aforementioned throne had the form of a dais, and the Hittite royal couple was seated on it during religious ceremonies.[1]

There is no evidence that Ḫalmašuit was ever depicted in anthropomorphic form.[6] She has accordingly been characterized as a "throne goddess" by Hittitologists.[7] In both Hattian and Hittite tradition she was connected with the idea of kingship.[1] She acted both as an embodiment of the concept of royal authority and as a protector of kings.[8] This role was most likely responsible for her close association with the war god Wurunkatte.[1] They are attested together in multiple offering lists.[9] They also appear in sequence in a Hattic text enumerating the most important deities of the Hattian pantheon.[10]

A ritual performed prior to the construction of a new palace (CTH 414) refers to an eagle as a messenger of Ḫalmašuit.[8] Volkert Haas notes that these birds were commonly portrayed as servants of the gods across Anatolia and northern Syria, as already implied by texts from Ebla predating the Hittite sources.[11]

Worship

According to Piotr Taracha, Ḫalmašuit might have originally been regarded as a royal deity of Zalpa, and later spread to other areas after their rulers adopted the traditions of this city.[12] She was the tutelary goddess of the dynasty of Kuššar, whose best known members Pitḫana and Anitta seized power in Kanesh in the Old Assyrian period.[1] A text from the reign of the latter states that she was also the tutelary goddess of Hattusa, and that she surrendered the city to him after a famine.[13] He subsequently brought her with him to Kanesh, and seemingly had a temple constructed for her there.[14]

Ḫalmašuit was likely adopted as a royal deity by the kings of Hattusa during the reign of Ḫattušili I, possibly following the example of Anitta.[12] A ritual preceding the construction of a new royal palace involved the Hittite king making a pact of friendship with Ḫalmašuit.[8] In the thirteenth century BCE, a throne representing Ḫalmašuit stood in the temple of Wurunkatte in Hattusa.[1]

A birth ritual listing the cult centers of various deities links Ḫalmašuit with the city of Ḫarpiša.[15]

Mythology

The god Zilipuri was considered the builder of the throne symbolically representing Ḫalmašuit, as attested in the text KUB 2.2.[1]

An early Hittite myth describes Ḫalmašuit as a goddess living in the mountains.[16] It relays that she was regarded a source of royal authority and protector of kings who brought them power from the sea and provided them with a ceremonial carriage (GIŠḫuluganni).[1] Volkert Haas argued that the reference to the sea is an allusion to the city of Zalpa, located on the Black Sea coast,[17] but according to Piotr Taracha this is uncertain.[1]

References

Bibliography

  • Gilan, Amir (2014). "The End of God-Napping and the Religious Foundations of the New Hittite Empire". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. 104 (2). doi:10.1515/za-2014-0016. ISSN 0084-5299.
  • Haas, Volkert (1994). Geschichte der hethitischen Religion. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East (in German). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29394-6. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  • Taracha, Piotr (2009). Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia. Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie. Vol. 27. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3447058858.
  • Taracha, Piotr (2016). "On Anatolian Traditions of the Old Hittite Kingship". Audias fabulas veteres. Anatolian Studies in Honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová. Brill. pp. 365–373. doi:10.1163/9789004312616_025. ISBN 978-90-04-31261-6.
  • Weiher, Egbert von (1972), "Ḫalmašuit", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2023-12-21
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