The eategory of tutelary gods, referred to in Hittite texts by the logogram

LAMMA borrowed from Mesopotamia, is characteristic of Luwian beliefs.'’.These

Were earthly divinities, just like all the gods protecting the countryside, household

And family. These gods, the Luwian Annari/ Annarumenzi and Hittite Innara/

Innarawantes, were assigned the role of guardians of particular deities, the king

And queen, parts of the body, senses, mental States, and all categories of objects,

As if all aspects of human existence and action needed their own tutelary

Deity. The list of the LAMMA gods is extensive, especially in texts from the period

Of intensified Luwian expansion into central and northem Asia Minor in the thir-

Teenth Century BC.

Laroche 1955b; 1962; Haas - Prechel 1993-1997; Hutter 2003: 227f.

Laroche 1988a: nos IBlff.

584 Cf. Lebrun 1987a: 244f>; Popko 1995a: 168.

Zeiifelder 1998: 438ff. i 443ff.

588 Cf. KUB 35.102 ii 11, iii 1: KUB 44,4+ rev. IfiL Beckman 1983: 177,

KUB 56.13 rev. 23. Haas 1994a: 374.

See now Popko 2007a: 66ff.; cf. also Hutter 2003: 229f.

i

The Empire Period

111

The most important of the Luwian tutelary gods was Kurunta/i(ya), attested as

Runti(ya) in sources of the first millennium BC,° b: ’ a deity whose sacred animal was

a stag. Theophoric names eonfirm the survival of his worship (as ‘PcovSac or ‘Pov-

In Greek sources), especially in Cilicia (Corycus) and Pisidia, until Hellenistic

590 *

Times. A thirteenth Century description of a cult image can be linked most prob-

ably with Kurunti(ya): “The tutelary deity (D LAMMA); a gold-plated cult image of

A Standing man with gold-plated eyes. In his right hand he holds a silver lance; in

His left hand he holds a shield. He Stands on a stag. Beneath hiiri is a silver-plated

591

Base.” ln other representations he was armed with a bow and arrows. The weapons,

Understandable in the case of a tutelary god, point to the resemblance between the

LAMMA gods and divinities of war and hunting.

The latter function was connected in particular with the Tutelary God of the

Countryside, D LAMMA LtL IgimraS D LAMMA or CEBVUS 3.DEÜS *463-«i (the Steg-

592

god / Kurunti(ya) of the Countryside),' who appears (with his consort Ala) in the

text of the EMIRGAZi altars from the times of Tuthaliya IV,'’ 93 as well as in hiero-

Glyphic inscriptions of the first millennium BC. d94 The hunting aspect of the

Stag-god is emphasized in a new EMIRGAZI fragment and the YALBÜRT block 10

(§ 4f.) from the times of Tuthaliya IV; “The Stag-god lovesfi), and I (am) Hero,

Field-Master(?), Hunter(?), Great King” ' A distant echo of this thirteenth Century

topos can be found in the eighth Century BOHQA inscription (§ 4f.), itself apparentiy

According to J.D. Hawkins (apud Herbordt 2005: VHI.3.2, excursus 2-3, and Hawkins 2006: 51),

The late period loss of initial ku- might already be occurring in the Empire period, especially

When the divine name was used as an onomastic eie ment.

Lebrun 1987a: 248; Popko 1995a: 168.

591 KUB 38-2 ii 24ff„ Hoffner 2002: 65 with references.

McMahon 1991: 44ff.; Hawkins 2004.

Hawkins 1995: 86ff.; 2006: 54ff. Cf. the silver rhyton in the shape of a stag’s forequarters from

the Norbert Schimmel Collection, Muscarella (ed.) 1974: no. 123; Alp 1983a: 9311.; 1988; Güterbock

Taracha 1996. The cult scene from its neck shows offerings to the Stag-god

(DEUS x.CERVUSx) and Ala (di)EUS X -FILIA). For the reading of the gold epigraphs on this

Rhyton, see Hawkins 2006: 52.

Hutter 2004b.

Hawkins 2006: 58f. A scene of the stag bunt on the bronze bowl of Taprammi from Kimk-

Kastamonu (Emre - Gmaroglu 1993: 684ff. and fig. 23: Czichon 1995; Mora 2007: 516) resembies

the bunt scenes in the reliefs from Alacahöyük. A seal Impression of the same Taprammi from

Nx§antepe shows him pouring a libation to the Stag-god of the King, Herbordt 2005: no. 409.

For Taprammi, see D’Alfonso 2005: 169f. n. 616.

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;

i

i

m

112 3. ÜITTITE AnATOIJA

Celebratmg a suceessful hunt: “I am good to Runtiva, here he grants to me the beasts

596

(as?) samaya (or: the samaya beasts).”'

Kurunti(ya)’s importanee caused the hieroglyphie sign CEEVUS, used to denote

Bis name, to Start being used in reference to other gods of the same category, not

Necessarily of Luwian origin. Karijuha is a good example. Together with Kubaba, he