Tarḫunna

Not to be confused with Tarhuna.

Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i^[2] was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti".

Tarḫunna
Hittite storm god
Member of Hittite pantheon
Tarḫunna statue in Adana museum
Other names	Tarhun, Tarhunda, Tarhunza, Taru, Tarḫunz
Genealogy
Siblings	Šuwaliyat, Aranzaḫ
Consort	Sun goddess of Arinna
Offspring	Telipinu, Kammamma, Mezulla, Inara, Weather god of Zippalanda, Weather god of Nerik.
Equivalents
Hurrian	Teššup
Canaanite	Baal[1]

Name

Tarḫunna is a cognate of the Hittite verb tarḫu-^zi, "to prevail, conquer, be powerful, be able, defeat"; from the Proto-Anatolian weather god *Tṛḫu-ent-, "conquering"; ultimately from PIE *terh₂-, "to cross over, pass through, overcome".^[3][4] The same name was used in almost all Anatolian languages: Luwian Tarḫunz-; Carian Trquδ-; Milyan Trqqñt-, and Lycian: Trqqas (A), Trqqiz (B).^[5][6][3]

Norbert Oettinger has argued that the functions of the Anatolian weather god ultimately come from the Proto-Indo-European god Perk^wunos, but that they did not preserve the old name to coin instead the new epithet Tṛḫu-ent- ("conquering"), which sounded close to the name of the Hattian Storm-god Taru.^[7]

Role

As weather god, Tarḫunna was responsible for the various manifestations of the weather, especially thunder, lightning, rain, clouds, and storms. He ruled over the heavens and the mountains. Thus it was Tarḫunna who decided whether there would be fertile fields and good harvests, or drought and famine and he was treated by the Hittites as the ruler of the gods.^[8]

Tarḫunna legitimised the position of the Hittite king, who ruled the land of Hatti in the name of the gods.^[9] He watched over the kingdom and the other institutions of the state, but also borders and roads.^[10]

Genealogy

Tarḫunna is the partner of the Sun goddess of Arinna. Their children are the gods Telipinu and Kammamma,^[11] the goddesses Mezulla^[12] and Inara,^[11] the Weather god of Zippalanda and the Weather god of Nerik.^[13]

As a result of his identification with the Hurrian god Teššup, Tarḫunna is also the partner of Ḫepat (who is syncretised with the Sun goddess of Arinna) and the father of the god Šarruma and the goddesses Allanzu and Kunzišalli.^[14]

His siblings are Šuwaliyat (identified with the Hurrian Tašmišu)^[15] and Aranzaḫ, the goddess of the Tigris river.

Ḫattušili and Puduḫepa make offerings to Tarḫunna and Ḫepat, on the Fıraktın relief.

Depictions

Tarḫunna at left, on top of Namni and Huzzi, with Hebat at right, Yazılıkaya

Tarḫunna was the chief god of the Hittites and is depicted at the front of a long line of male gods in rock reliefs at the sanctuary of Yazılıkaya. There he is depicted as a bearded man with a pointed cap and a sceptre, standing on the backs of the mountain gods Namni and Ḫazzi and holding a three-pronged thunderbolt in his hand. Later depictions show him with a battle axe in the form of an adze.^[16]

Equivalents

The god had cognates in most other ancient Anatolian languages. In Hattian (a non-Indo-European language), he was called Taru; in Luwian, Tarḫunz (Cuneiform: Tarḫu(wa)nt(a)-, Hieroglyphic: DEUS TONITRUS);^[17] in Palaic, Zaparwa; in Lycian, Trqqas/Trqqiz;^[17] and in Carian, Trquδe (dat.).^[18]

In the wider Mesopotamian sphere, he was associated with Hadad and Teššup.

The Luwian god Tarḫunz worshipped by the Iron Age Neo-Hittite states was closely related to Tarḫunna.^[19] Personal names referring to Tarḫunz, like "Trokondas", are attested into Roman times.^[20]

Tarhunna has also been identified with the later Armenian and Roman god, Jupiter Dolichenus.^[21]