Arma was an Anatolian

Moon god A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be foun ...

, worshipped by 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 ...

and

Luwians The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...

in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Name

The name derives from the

Proto-Anatolian Proto-Anatolian is the proto-language from which the ancient Anatolian languages emerged (i.e. Hittite and its closest relatives). As with almost all other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstruct ...

''*ʿOrmo-'' ("wanderer"). He is attested as the Moon god in Hittite and

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 ...

, with the name ''Arma-''. In Lycian he was called ''Erm̃ma-'', ''Arm̃ma-'', in Carian ''Armo'' (dative case), and in Lydian ''Arm-''. In

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

texts, the name is written with 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 ...

s ^dEN.ZU or ^dXXX, in

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

with a crescent Moon symbol, which is transliterated as (DEUS) LUNA.

Role

While the Hattian moon god,

Kašku Kašku ("shining star") was the Anatolian Moon god. He is known from the myth of the "Moon's fall from Heaven," in which he falls from his place in the sky and lands in the marketplace of the city of . The angry weather god Taru drenched him with ...

, was not worshipped, Hittite and Luwian religion involved extensive worship of Arma. For the Luwians in particular, the moon was associated with the months of pregnancy and Arma was therefore believed to protect pregnant women and to help women giving birth (note Hittite ''armaḫḫ-'' ("to impregnate") and ''armai-'' ("to be pregnant"). Thus the Moon god had an important role in family religion. He also served as an important guarantor of oaths in state treaties. His wife was Nikkal (the Mesopotamian goddess

Ningal Ningal ( Sumerian: "Great Queen"; Akkadian Nikkal) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of the moon god, Nanna/Sin. She was particularly closely associated with his main cult centers, Ur and Harran, but they were also worshiped toge ...

). The most well-known myth in which the Moon god is involved is of Hattian origin. In this story, the Moon god Kašku falls from heaven and lands in the marketplace or gatehouse of the city of . The angry

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 ...

dropped a heavy downpour of rain on the Moon god, who became very afraid. The goddesses

Ḫapantali Ḫapantali, also known as Ḫapantaliya, was a Luwians, Luwian goddess who functioned as a divine shepherd. She was also incorporated into Hattians, Hattian and Hittite mythology and religion, Hittite beliefs. She is first attested in the Old Ass ...

and

Kamrušepa Kamrušepa was a Hittite and Luwian goddess of medicine and magic, analogous to Hattic and Palaic goddess Kataḫzipuri. She is best known as one of the deities involved in the Telepinu Myth, in which her actions were crucial to pacify the an ...

eventually saved him using magic spells.

Equivalents

Arma was identified with the

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) ...

Moon god

Kušuḫ Kušuḫ, also known under the name Umbu, was the god of the moon in Hurrian pantheon. He is attested in cuneiform texts from many sites, from Hattusa in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh, Mari and other locations in Syria, to Nuzi, loc ...

, as in Hittite sources which transmit the Hurrian "Song of Silver," in which the Moon god is defeated by the demon ("Silver") and is thrown out of heaven by him. In Syria he is assimilated to the cult of the Moon god of

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

, especially in the 1st millennium BC, which was among the most important deities of the city. It is theorized that the supreme deity of pre-Christian Georgian religion,

Armazi Armazi ( ka, არმაზი) is a locale in Georgia, 4 km southwest of Mtskheta and 22 km northwest of Tbilisi. A part of historical Greater Mtskheta, it is a place where the ancient city of the same name and the original capital of the early ...

, has heavy ties with Hittite Arma.

Legacy

It has been suggested that the name of the deity survived in Anatolia as part of the Galatian compound names Αρμεδυμνος ("Armedumnos") and Ερμεδυμνος ("Ermedumnos"), from Anatolian "Arma-" 'moon' and Galatian (a

Celtic language The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves ...

) "-dumnos" 'world'.Freeman, Ph.. "Lycian/Galatian Αρμεδυμνος". In: ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' 55, no. 1 (2007): 56. https://doi.org/10.1515/ZCPH.2007.56

References

Bibliography

Volkert Haas Volkert Haas (1 November 1936 – 13 May 2019) was a German Assyrologist and Hittitologist. __NOTOC__ Life Volkert Haas studied Assyrology and Near Eastern archaeology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Marburg from 1963 to ...

: ''Die hethitische Literatur.'' Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, , pp. 120 f., 150 f. * Volkert Haas,

Heidemarie Koch Heidemarie Koch (17 December 1943 – 28 January 2022) was a German Iranologist. Life and career Koch was born in Merseburg, Saxony, Prussia, Germany. She studied mathematics as her major between 1963 and 1966. Subsequently, she worked as a teach ...