Tiyaz or Tiyad was the sun god of the Palaians, regarded as the third most important deity in their pantheon. He was also incorporated into the

Hittite religion Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religion, religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in Anatolia from . Most of the narratives embodying Hittite mythology are lost, and the elements that w ...

. He appears in a ritual written in

Palaic Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub ...

, though presumed to belong to a Hittite corpus, in which he is implored to anoint the king. After the fall of the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

, he might have been worshiped by

Phrygians The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity. Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term t ...

Name

Attested forms of the name of the

sun god include Tiyaz and Tiyad. The spelling Tiwat, while present in some academic publications, is considered erroneous. It is presumed his name could also be represented by the

Sumerogram A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian, Eblaite, or Hittite. Th ...

UTU Shamash ( Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu ( Sumerian: dutu " Sun") was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in the world every day, and was therefore responsible for justice and protection ...

, much like those of other solar deities mentioned in Hittite sources, such as

Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...

Šimige Šimige was the Hurrian sun god. Known sources do not associate him with any specific location, but he is attested in documents from various settlements inhabited by the Hurrians, from Kizzuwatnean cities in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alala ...

or Hattian Ištanu. The

theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...

Tiyaz is derived from the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

root '' diēu(-ot)-'', "(heavenly) light", and is a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

Tiwaz. In Hittite, the same root only formed the basis of the common words ''šiwat'', "day", and ''šiuš'', "god", while more distant cognate theonyms include

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

Character

Little is known about Tiyaz's character beyond his role as a sun god. He was a male deity, as in contrast with the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

, the Palaians did not adopt the Hattian solar goddesses. It has been noted that in contrast with

, but similarly to

Luwian religion Luwian religion was the religious and mythological beliefs and practices of the Luwians, an Indo-European people of Asia Minor, which is detectable from the Bronze Age until the early Roman Empire. It was strongly affected by foreign influence in ...

, the traditions of the Palaians, while influenced by

Hattians The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...

, preserved more elements presumed to have Indo-European origin. In known sources, Tiyaz is consistently the third most important Palaic deity, though

Manfred Hutter Manfred Hutter (born 6 June 1957) is a professor at Bonn University. He is usually interested in writing about minority religion A minority religion is a religion held by a Minority group, minority of the population of state or which is otherwise ...

suggests he might have originally been the head of the pantheon and only lost his status due to Hattian influence, as both of the two main deities,

Ziparwa Ziparwa, originally known as Zaparwa, was the head of the pantheon of the Palaians, inhabitants of a region of northern Anatolia known as Pala (Anatolia), Pala in the Bronze Age. It is often assumed that he was a weather god in origin, though he w ...

and

Kataḫzipuri Kataḫzipuri (also known as Kataḫziwuri) was a goddess worshiped by Hattians, Hittites and Pala (Anatolia), Palaians in Bronze Age Anatolia. She was associated with magic, and was commonly invoked in rituals dealing with healing and purificatio ...

, have Hattic names. Hittite sources indicate that Tiyaz was associated with a group of deities known as Ilaliyantikeš. Their name has been connected with the Hittite verb ''ilaliya-'', "to desire." , a closely related group were similarly associated with Luwian Tiwaz. In a Palaic myth about a lost god, Tiyaz dispatches an eagle to search for him.

Worship

Religion of the Palaians is only known from Hittite sources, which detail the celebrations of Palaic deities incorporated into the Hittite pantheon, who were worshiped in the temple of Ziparwa in

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

. Based on available evidence, it has been proposed that Tiyaz was connected to rituals about kingship in Palaic culture. He is mentioned in a formula written in

, apparently, reflecting Hittite royal ideology. It forms a part of text CTH 751, a series of invocations to various deities. The sun god is invited to pick his favorite among the breads prepared as offerings. He is addressed as the father and mother of the king, which, based on similar examples, is presumed to be a stock figure of speech indicating respect, rather than a statement about divine descent. He is implored to anoint and exalt the king. This is the only direct evidence for a Hittite belief in the rulers being directly nominated to their position by gods. It has been argued that the worship of Tiyaz persisted even after the absorption of remnants of the Palaians by Hittites and the subsequent fall of the

. Its vestiges might be present in the later religion of the

. Possible evidence includes the Old Phrygian personal name Tiyes and the New Phrygian theonym Τιος. Other evidence for Palaic influence on beliefs of the Phrygians is the reference to a local hypostasis of

, Zeus Papas, argued to reflect the Palaic theonym Tarupapami (" Taru is my father", Taru being a

weather god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *{{cite journal, last=Yakubovich, first=Ilya, title=Were Hittite Kings Divinely Anointed? A Palaic Invocation to the Sun-God and Its Significance for Hittite Religion, url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233660688, journal=Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, publisher=Brill, volume=5, issue=1, year=2005, issn=1569-2116, doi=10.1163/156921205776137972, pages=107–137 Hittite deities Palaic mythology Solar gods