The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Seventeen, the Hittite Sky Father

 The pantheon of the ancient Hittites was a complex one, because they absorbed, merged and layered deities from multiple cultures: Hattic, Hurrian, Mesopotamian, Syrian and Indo-European, forming a living archive of all the cultures which they interacted with. Consequently, there is not a single deity who one can point to and say, 'this is the Sky Father'. Anatolia, the homeland of the Hittites was a geographical crossroads which allowed the importation of cultural influences from Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Aegean and the Caucasus. The conquering by the Hittites of foreign peoples facilitated the importation of foreign gods, the continuance of regional cults and the adoption of parallel gods with similar functions. Thus new gods were added on top of their own existing gods. For this reason, the Hittites speak of 'the thousand gods of Hatti' in their texts. While they syncretised gods, they never fully fused them together. Different gods with similar functions were treated as being equivalent, but they remained with distinct cults and their own separate rituals. Thus, the same deity may have a different name depending on the context. When the Hittites agreed treaties with other peoples, the gods of both parties were invoked and this caused foreign gods to be added to the pantheon, and these deities had to be appeased to avoid divine wrath and be honoured in state rituals along with their own native gods.

The Hittites, although they were an Indo-European people, split off very early from the Proto-Indo-European stock, and their Indo-European pantheon became overwritten by the Hattic religion of pre-Indo-European Anatolia and the Hurrian religion. The Hattians were the original non-Indo-European population native to central Anatolia, whose language was a linguistic isolate, neither related to Indo-European nor Semitic. The Hurrians probably originated in the vicinity of the Caucasus, and spoke Hurrian, an extinct Hurro-Urartian language, not related to Indo-European or Semitic. These two peoples were of particular influence upon the Hittites.

In order to identify the original Indo-European pantheon of the Hittites we need to peel off all the later foreign accretions. The original Hittite pantheon was small, sky-focused and closely based upon the Proto-Indo-European one. It contained the following:

. a Sky Father-  nepišaš Ištanu  Partly Indo-European/partly Hattic name

. a Storm God- Tarḫunna / Tarhunt

. a Sun Deity- Indo-European name unknown

. a Dawn Goddess-Ḫilamma

. Divine Twins-Šiwattanna and Šiwaliya

. an Earth Mother-Daganzipa

. a Fire God-Ishara

. a River God-Maršantiya

. a Fate/Underworld Goddess-Gulš- / Gulšeš

The primary focus of this essay is of course, the Sky Father, so I am going to focus upon nepišaš Ištanu, meaning 'Sun-god of the Sky/Heaven'. The PIE root of His name is  nébʰos, meaning 'sky, cloud'. Ištanu, however is from the Hattic eštan, meaning 'sun'. Although the Hittites lost the Dyeus name, they retained the attributes of the Proto-Indo-European original. The Hittite Sky Father was a celestial overseer, protector of kings and a moral witness. No mythic narratives survive, because He was overshadowed by the Hurrian Storm God, Teshub and the Hattic Sun Goddess, Arinna.

Under the name of MEŠ ŠA DINGIR, the Hittite Sky Father was invoked in rituals concerning oath-taking, boundary agreements, royal succession and international diplomacy. An example of ritual formula: 'The Sun-god of Heaven, lord of the sky, shall witness.' It should be pointed out that the name MEŠ ŠA DINGIR was written entirely in Sumerograms, so the etymology is Sumerian, not Hittite. The meaning of the name may be broken down as follows: 

. MEŠ= 'many'

. ŠA= 'of'

. DINGIR= 'god'

Thus, 'the things of god' (divine ordinances, cosmic laws, sacred order). The Hittites inherited Sumerian writing, Akkadian scribal conventions and Mesopotamian legal terminology. Although they used Sumerograms, they applied them to their own religious concepts. The meaning of  MEŠ ŠA DINGIR aligns with the Indo-European cosmic order, which is found in other Indo-European cultures:

. Ṛta (Vedic)

. Díkē (Greek)

. Fides (Roman)

. Dieva's moral order (Baltic)

. Týr’s oath law (Germanic)

The Hittite Sky Father was regarded as the second most important deity after the Sun Goddess. From the reign of Tudhaliya III (c. 1380-c. 1350 BCE), He became the protector of the King and was represented on royal seals as a winged solar disc embracing the King. From the reign of Suppiluliuma I (c. 1350- c. 1322 BCE), He became the most important god to be invoked in interstate treaties. This was an ancient Indo-European function of the Sky Father and is also to be found in the Greek Zeus Horkios, the Italic Iupiter Dius Fidius, the Vedic Varuṇa and the Baltic Dievas. He embodies the daylight, the bright sky, cosmic order and heavenly oversight. As is the case in other Indo-European traditions (e.g. the Germanic, Vedic and Baltic) the Sky Father became ritually central but mythically quiet, with His role being overtaken by the Storm God. Ritually speaking, the Sky Father appears in royal prayers as the King's protector, treaty ceremonies as the primary oath witness, legal and purification ceremonies as the guarantor of truth, and in daily solar rites in which the King greets the sun.

When invoking the Sky Father as the Sun-god of Heaven, the King stood before the divine statues in the temple, burned incense, poured libations, raised his hands towards heaven and invoked the god first among the male celestial gods. The King would have begun with a declaration along the lines of: 'O Sun-god of Heaven, lord of the sky, father of the land, you who see all things.' The King would have referred to Him as 'My Sun', 'Lord of Heaven' and 'Father'. The following are typical ritual expressions used by the King:

Celestial overseer- 'You who see all things.'

Guardian of cosmic order- 'You, O Sun-god of Heaven, see and know the truth.'

Protector of kingship- 'Guard my throne.'

Oath witness-'The gods see; the gods know; the gods witness this oath.'

Purifier-'See it, O gods; cleanse it; restore the ordinances of the gods.'

The Hittite Sky Father formed a pair with the Earth Mother, Dagan-zipa. They were complementary cosmic principles, the heaven symbolising light, truth, order and witness, while the earth symbolised stability, fertility and nourishment. They were ritual partners and invoked together ('Heaven sees; Earth receives'). This is an expression of cosmic balance. They are the foundational cosmic parents and joint witnesses of oaths. I do not wish to go into any further detail about the Earth Mother or Her relationship with the Sky Father as I intend to cover this in my next post.