
Runtiya was the
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'') – ...
god of the hunt, who had a close connection with
deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
. He was among the most important gods of the Luwians.
Name
The name was written in the
Luwian cuneiform of the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
as , which can be read as *Runtiya or *Kruntiya. 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 ...
of the
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
, he was named "Runtiya" and his name was generally written with the image of a deer or antlers, as (DEUS) CERVUS ("God deer").
The name is possibly derived from a word for "horn" or "antler", but all the etymologies which have been proposed to date are problematic. The relationship between Runtiya and the
Kurunta
Kurunta () or Kurunti(ya) is the Hittite mythology, Hittite stag god and a tutelary god of the countryside.
Name
The name of Kurunta is spelled as (DEUS)CERVUS in Hieroglyphic Luwian, or as dKAL in Hittite cuneiform. As dKAL has to be read ...
is disputed. Some scholars argue that the two gods are identical and reconstruct an older Luwian form of the name, *''Krunti(ya)-''; others suggest that there was a pre-Indo-European Anatolian divinity which the Luwian Runtiya and the Hittite Kurunta had developed.
Runtiya was often invoked in personal names: the oldest example derives the 18th century BC
Kültepe
Kültepe ( Turkish: ), also known under its ancient name Kaneš (Kanesh, sometimes also Kaniš/Kanish) or Neša (Nesha), is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey. It was already a major settlement at the beginning of the 3rd mille ...
, where a man called Ruwa(n)tia and another called Ru(n)tia are attested. The latest attested names are
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
examples from
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
: Rondas (Ρωνδας), Rozarmas (Ρωζαρμας; Luwian: *Runt-zalma- "Runtiya is safety") and Rondbies (Ρωνδβιης; Luwian: Runt(a)-piya- "Runtiya-Gift").
Role
During the Bronze Age, he was the treated as a protective deity, the son of the Sun god
Tiwaz and the goddess
Kamrušepa. His partner was "Lady
Ala." The pair were invoked along with various mountains and rivers, such as
ḪUR.SAGŠarpa ( near
Emirgazi). Runtiya's epithet ''šarlaimi'' ("raised") was also the name of a mountain god. In the
Neo-Hittite
The states called Neo-Hittite, Syro-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works) were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern parts o ...
period, Runtiya and Ala-Kubaba shared a sanctuary at
Ancoz.
Meadow god
Runtiya was closely linked with the deer and his Iron Age epithets ''Imralli'' and ''Imrassi'' ("The meadow") indicate his connection to hunting. According to Iron Age evidence, he received sacrifices of gazelles and rewarded the worshipper for this with success in the hunt.
Divinities are also known from the Bronze Age which were referred to with the Luwian word ''im(ma)ra-'' ("field, meadow") and are likely to be linked to this aspect of Runtiya. Thus, in the cult of the Hittite city of
Ḫubišna
Cybistra or Kybistra, earlier known as Ḫubišna, was a town of ancient Cappadocia or Cilicia.
The main city of Kybistra/Ḫubišna was located at the site corresponding to present-day , about 10 km northeast of the modern town of Ereğ ...
, the divinity
D was named immediately before
DLAMMA šarlaimi and in the cult of
Ištanuwa,
DImmaršia is listed immediately after the "Great Protective God" (
dLAMMA GAL). Another relevant Luwian deity was
D.
The
Carian god Imbramos or Imbrasos (Ἴμβρασος) which
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...
identified with
Hermes
Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...
, probably belongs to this group of deities as well.
In the
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'') – ...
-
Phoenician Karatepe Bilingual Runtiya is identified with
Resheph
Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; Eblaite , ''Rašap'', , ''ršp'', Egyptian ', , ''ršp'', ''Rešep̄'') was a god associated with war and plague, originally worshiped in Ebla in the third millennium BCE. He was one of ...
(''ršp ṣprm'' "Rašap of the he-goats" or "Rašap of the birds").
Depiction
According to a Hittite description of a statuette of the Protective God, he was depicted as a man standing on a deer, with a bow in his right hand and eagle and hares in his left hand. Iron Age depictions of Runtiya, like the
Karasu relief show him as a beardless god standing on a deer, with a peaked cap and a bow over his shoulder.
Subsequent history
It is generally agreed that Runtiya lived on in the cult of Hermes at
Korykos
Corycus (; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; ; , Literal translation, lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the valley called Şeytan deresi; the site is now occupied by the town ...
in Rough Cilica, especially since the lists of priests of the sanctuary in the nearby grottos of
Cennet and Cehennem
Cennet and Cehennem (heaven and hell in Turkish) are the names of two large sinkholes in the Taurus Mountains, in Mersin Province, Turkey. The sinkholes are among the tourist attractions of the province.
Geography
Cennet and Cehennem are situa ...
frequently include ''Ro(nd)-'' as part of their personal names.
[Philo Hendrik Jan Houwink Ten Cate: ''The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period''. E. J. Brill, Leiden 1961, pp. 211ff.]
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 ...
: ''Geschichte der hethitischen Religion'' (= ''
Handbuch der Orientalistik.'' Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, .
*
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 ...
: "Aspects in Luwian Religion." In H. Craig Melchert (ed.): ''The Luwians'' (= ''Handbuch der Orientalistik.'' Volume 1.68). Brill, Leiden 2003, {{ISBN, 90-04-13009-8. pp. 211–280.
Luwian gods
Hunting gods