Ḫebat ( xhu, 𒀭𒄭𒁁, ), also transcribed Khepat, was the

mother goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or the natural world, ...

of the

Hurrians The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...

, known as "the

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ge ...

of all living". She was a popular deity, and her name appears in many Theophoric name, theophoric personal names. A king of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

mentioned in the Amarna letters was named

Abdi-Heba Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian d ...

, possibly meaning "Servant of Ḫepat".

Origin

Alfonso Archi assumes that her Hurrian name was derived from an earlier form known from

Ebla Ebla (Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center thr ...

: ^d''Ha-a-ba-du'', "she of

Halab )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

," already associated with a weather god (the Semitic Hadda rather than Hurrian Teshub) in some offering lists.

Mythical family and associated deities

Hurrians, who incorporated a number of preexisting Syrian deities into their own pantheon, regarded their head god

Teshub Teshub (also written Teshup, Teššup, or Tešup; cuneiform ; hieroglyphic Luwian , read as ''Tarhunzas'';Annick Payne (2014), ''Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts'', 3rd revised edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. ...

as Hebat's husband. The mountain god Sarruma, already part of her circle in earlier times, was reinterpeted as their son as a result, and in cult he functioned as a dyad with his mother. They also had a daughter, Alanzu. Lluís Feliu in his study of Dagan argues that Hebat was likely viewed as his daughter and as such as a sister of the storm god of Aleppo (

Hadad Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur (Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. F ...

). Her

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

was the goddess Takitu/Takiti.

Syncretism

The Hittite sun goddess

Arinniti The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief goddess and companion of the weather god Tarḫunna in Hittite mythology. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the "Queen of all lands." ...

was later assimilated with Hebat within the state cult of the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-cent ...

. A prayer of Queen Puduhepa makes this explicit: Piotr Taracha however doubts if this theological development was adopted into everyday religious practices of the general Hittite population.P. Taracha, ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia'', 2009, p. 92

References

External links

Hittite/Hurrian Mythology
{{Hurrian mythology Hurrian deities Mother goddesses

Origin

Mythical family and associated deities

Syncretism

See also

References

External links