Taru (god)
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Taru was 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 ...
worshiped in ancient
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
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 ...
. He was associated with the bull, and could be depicted in the form of this animal. It is presumed that the names of the Hittite and
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'') – ...
weather gods,
Tarḫunna Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti". Name Tarḫunna is a cognate of the Hittite verb ''tarḫu-zi'', "to prevail, conquer, be pow ...
and
Tarḫunz Tarḫunz (stem: ''Tarḫunt-'') was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub. Name The name of the Pro ...
, while etymologically
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. ...
, were meant to resemble Taru's as a result of Hattian cultural influence on other cultures of the region.


Name and character

Taru was the Hattian
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 ...
. The term "Hattian" refers to the native inhabitants of the northern part of ancient Anatolia. As a weather god, he was believed to control phenomena such as
thunder Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...
and
lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...
; additionally he was responsible for the well-being of people and animals, and for the growth of plants. A hymn dedicated to him, ''awan kaitgaḫillu dTaru elli lipḫaippin'', most likely focuses on guaranteeing the flourishing of grain (''kait''). 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 ...
Taru's name was written as ''dTa-a-ru'', ''dDa-a-ru'' or sporadically ''dŠa-a-ru'' . It could also be represented 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 dIŠKUR and d10, same as the names of other weather gods. It has been proposed that Taru's name might mean "bull" in Hattic. A connection between it and the
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 ...
word ''taurus'', and more broadly with terms referring to bulls in various
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. ...
and Semitic languages, has also been proposed, but the matter remains unresolved. It is nonetheless assumed that Taru can be characterized as a bull god. He could be depicted in theriomorphic form as this animal. Bulls not accompanied by any other figures on seals from Kanesh might represent him. In addition to his symbolic animal, his attributes were a mace and
lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...
.


Relations to other Anatolian weather gods

According to , it can be assumed that 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 ...
Taru referred to multiple individual weather deities worshiped in various locations.
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 ...
identified the
Weather god of Nerik The Weather god of Nerik is a Hittite weather god, who was mainly worshipped in the Hittite city of Nerik, whose cult was relocated to Kaštama and Takupša for two hundred years after the Hittites lost Nerik to the Kaskians. He was also referred ...
, the head of the local pantheon of Nerik in Hittite times, as Taru. It has also been suggested that the names Wašezzili (likely to be identified as the Weather god of Zippalanda) and
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 ...
referred to local forms of Taru. Furthermore, the deity Tahaštaru, whose name according to Carlo Corti can be interpreted as combination of Taru and a
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
also attested in a number of other northern Anatolian theonyms (Tahašail, Tahattenuit, Tahawašezzu, Tahpillanu) was the weather god of Dahattaruna. Theophoric names invoking Taru have also been identified in texts from Kanesh, but there is no indication in known sources that Hattian culture had influence on the local pantheon. There is evidence that a weather god did belong to it, though Guido Kryszat assumes he might have been
Tarḫunna Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti". Name Tarḫunna is a cognate of the Hittite verb ''tarḫu-zi'', "to prevail, conquer, be pow ...
or less plausibly Nipas.


Taru, Tarḫunna and Tarḫunz

It is assumed that the early Hittites "were impressed by Hattic religious culture and attempted to imitate the kind of complex society that they encountered in central Anatolia". Daniel Schwemer states that the scope of this process makes it impossible to study either the Hattian or Hititte weather god on his own, without considering the other. While the names of both Hittite (
Tarḫunna Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti". Name Tarḫunna is a cognate of the Hittite verb ''tarḫu-zi'', "to prevail, conquer, be pow ...
) and Luwian (
Tarḫunz Tarḫunz (stem: ''Tarḫunt-'') was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub. Name The name of the Pro ...
) weather gods are derived from an
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 In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
, they are not
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 ...
with the names of other weather gods in pantheons of speakers of languages from this group, and might have been formed specifically to resemble the name of Taru. Schwemer goes as far as suggesting both gods were effectively adaptations of Taru. Gary Beckman more cautiously calls them "a melding of the Indo-European Sky-god with the Hattic weather god Taru". Further derivatives of the Hittite and Luwian names include later deities such as
Lycia Lycia (; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; , ; ) was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğ ...
n Trqqas, who continued to appear as an element in theophoric names from
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
as late as in the
Hellenistic period 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 ...
. The myth of
Illuyanka In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka was a serpentine dragon slain by Tarḫunz (), the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian god of sky and storm. It is known from Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Çorum-Boğazköy, the former Hittite capital Hat ...
, whose Hittite version ( CTH 321) casts Tarḫunna as the protagonist, most likely goes back to an earlier Hattian tale, which presumably had Taru confront the monster instead. Schwemer suggests that the epithet "storm god of heaven", which designated the primary manifestation of Tarḫunna in Hittite sources from the Old Hittite period onward, could be analogously applied to Taru as well. Eventually the use of the same logograms to refer to a large number of weather gods (Anatolian Taru, Tarḫunna and Tarḫunz,
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) ...
Teshub Teshub was the Hurrians, Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian language, Hurrian. Both Phonetics, phonetic and L ...
, as well as Syro-Mesopotamian
Adad Hadad (), 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. From ...
/
Hadad Hadad (), 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. From ...
) in Hittite texts resulted in interchange of traits between them, leading to the creation of what Michael B. Hundley has described as a "constellation of deities with shared traits, who nonetheless often maintain their individual identities".


Family

Similarly to Hittite Tarḫunna in later tradition, Taru was presumably paired with the
Sun goddess of Arinna The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief Goddess of Hittite mythology. Her companion is the weather god Tarḫunna. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the "Queen of all lands. ...
and was regarded as the father of Telipinu, Inara and Mezulla. The goddess Zintuḫi, whose name is seemingly derived from the Hattic word ''zintu'', "grandchild", likely was regarded as the weather god's granddaughter in Hattian culture already. It is presumed that references to anonymous grandfather and father of the weather god in a myth about said deity going missing might reflect Taru's genealogical position in the Hattian pantheon. However, it is not possible to identify his ancestors with any specific gods known by name. In Nerik, the local weather god, possibly to be identified as Taru, was regarded as a son of Šulinkatte. While a reference to a weather god being a son of a moon god (dU DUMU d30) is known from the text KUB 33.89, according to Jörg Klinger it most likely belongs to 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) ...
milieu and reflects a variant genealogy of
Teshub Teshub was the Hurrians, Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian language, Hurrian. Both Phonetics, phonetic and L ...
, with
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 his father in place of
Kumarbi Kumarbi, also known as Kumurwe, Kumarwi and Kumarma, was a Hurrian god. He held a senior position in the Hurrian pantheon, and was described as the "father of gods". He was portrayed as an old, deposed king of the gods, though this most likely ...
, and should not be treated as evidence that a similar connection existed between Taru and 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 ...
.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Hattian deities Hittite deities Sky and weather gods Cattle deities