The Solar Deities of Bronze Age Anatolia
Studies in Texts of the Early Hittite Kingdom
by Charles W. Steitler
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.
- By (author) Charles W Steitler
Other Titles in this Series
Liturgie oder Literatur?
Die Kultrituale der Hethiter im transkulturellen Vergleich. Akten eines Werkstattgesprachs an der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Mainz, 2.-3. Dezember 2010
Volume 60
Functional Differentiation in Hittite Festival Texts
An Analysis of the Old Manuscripts of the KI.LAM Great Assembly
Volume 65
Schicksalsbestimmende Kommunikation
Sprachliche, gesellschaftliche und religiose Aspekte hethitischer Fluch-, Segens- und Eidesformeln
Volume 52
Two Festivals Celebrated by a Hittite Prince (CTH 647.I and II-III)
New Light on Local Cults in North-Central Anatolia in the Second Millennium BC
Volume 61
The Tablets and Their Scribes
The Palaeography of Hittite Cuneiform and Writing Practices in Hittite Anatolia. Proceedings of the Second International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 2-4 May 2024
Volume 73
Studies in Hittite Economic Administration
A New Edition of the Hittite Palace-Temple Administrative Corpus and Research on Allied Texts Found at Hattusa. Volume I: Background, Corpus Overview, Case Studies, Lexical Commentary, and Glossary
Volume 70
Studies in Hittite Economic Administration
A New Edition of the Hittite Palace-Temple Administrative Corpus and Research on Allied Texts Found at Hattusa. Volume II: Text Editions and Philological Commentary
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Luwili
Hittite-Luwian Ritual Texts Attributed to Puriyanni, Kuwattalla and Silalluhi (CTH 758-763). Volume I: Edition and Commentary. Volume II: Discussion and Glossary
Volume 72
Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces
Cult Practices and Cult Spaces in Hittite Anatolia and Neighbouring Cultures. Proceedings of the First International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 3-5 June 2019
Volume 66
At the Interface of Religion and Administration
The Hittite Cult Inventories: With a contribution by Adam Kryszen
Volume 68
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