Cult of Tessub and Hebat of Halab, ehief pair of the dynastic pantheon (see 3.2.2),

spread to the native Hittite territories in Asia Minor. 8 ' 1 The annals of Hattusili I

Inform that he brought to Hittite tempies statues of Human gods plundered in Syria,

Including a cult image of a local hypostasis of the Storm-god of Halab from the town

of Hassu(wa). 672 This is hardly proof, however, of the incorporation of Tessub of Halab

673

and other Human gods into the Old Hittite pantheon.'

Sarramma, 0 ' 1 originally a great mountain-god venerated in the Syro-Anatolian

Borderland as a bull (in this guise we see bim, for example, on the rock relief from

Hanyeri 6 "’), was included in the Hurrian-Kizzuwatnean pantheon as the son of Tes

Sub and Hebat. Similarly so in the procession of divinities from Yazihkaya (3.2.2)

And in the kaluti -lists of IJebat, where he is mentioned most often directly after the

Goddess. 6,8 The cult of the diad Hebat - Sarrumma had its source in the theological

Conception of the mother - son pair. Sarrumma is also found in a modified pan

theon of Halab/ >7 ° but originally he surely did not belang in it.

Sauska. (the ‘Great One’ 680) took over many fcraits of the Sumerian Inanna and

Babylonian Istar. both in her female aspect as goddess of love and in the male one

As warrior-goddess. In the latter aspect she was venerated with various kinds of

Weapons perceived as independent divine beings. 881 Also connected with the male

Aspect of Sauska was the cult of 4 hot stones’ that played an important role in

Klengel 1965a; Soucek - Siegelova 1974; Popko 1998; 2002.

See n. 668.

Cf. Popko 1.995a: 95f. Contra, e.g., Klengel 1965a: 90; 1992: 344; Richter 2002: 306ff. with ref

Erenees; see also Sehwemer 2001: 494f,; 2007b: 166.

Laroche 1963; Haas 1994a: 39Off.; Sehwemer 2001: 484ff,; Tremouille 2006.

Kohlmeyer 1983: 86ff. with referenees; Ehringhaus 2005: 76ff.; Stokkel 2005: 174.

Cf. CTH 698: KBo 14.142 i 23. ii 12, 25; KUR 27.13 i 5, 15, Klengel 1985a: 91f.; Soucek -- Siegelova

1974: 39ff.; Haas 1994a: 554L; Tremouille 1997: 94ff. CTH 704: KBo 22,180 i 20’; KBo 34.16+KBo

33.27+KBo 35.136+ ii 1’, iv 27; KBo 35.357 ü 5; KUB 45.74 l.col. 5’, Wegner 2002: 55, 105ff.

Tremouille 1997: 189f.

Haas 1994a: 390, 554.

Popko 1995a: 98; 1998; 122 n. 19; Tremouille 1997: 190: Sehwemer 2001: 485, 500.

Wegner 1995b.

123

magie,°“ 2 Nineveh was the oldest and the most famous center of the goddess’s cult.

Sauska of Nineveh was greatlv venerated in Syria and Asia Minor, 884 and she also

Made her way into the Hittite state pantheon, appearing among the divine witnesses of

State treaties (3.2.1). In the westera Hurrian pantheon, Sauska was accompanied

By her maidservants Ninatta and Kulitta, who were already present in her original

Entourage in Nineveh. In Anatolia, her manifestations from Samufaa, 685 Hattarina 688

And Lawazantiya were particularly venerated.

The cult of the Syrian Ishara/Ushara, 68 originally goddess of love and ident-

Ified in this role with Istar, spread in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC; she

also had her temple at Kaneä (see 2.1). In this original aspect, Ishara was worshiped

In some Syrian centers still in the second millennium BC, 688 for example,. in Ebia,

Alalah and Emar/Meskene. At Alalah, Ishara, called ‘Lady of Alalab’ in the in-

Scription of Idrimi (line 2), 689 partnered the Storm-god; the logogram ISTAR that

denotes here Ishara’s name identifies her as a love goddess. 6 ' 1 In Emar she was

D-

Paired with the city god NIN.URTA, whom Joan Goodnick Westenholz identified

with the epithet II Imari/Hamari (‘God of Emar’), maybe a manifestation of Dagan/

691

Kumarbi. Ishara was also greatly venerated in Kizzuwatna, especially in the area

A round Tarsa/ Tarsus and Nirisa in Cilicia. There was a temple of the goddess on

One of the Cilician mountains bearing her name. IJamri-Ishara of the Hittite

693

texts' ' refers presumably to the tradition of the goddess’s cult in Kizzuwatna, where

Haas - Thiel 1978: 9, 38t; Fick 2004: 159.

683 Hurrian spells from Ugarit mention Akkad, Nineveh with [x-A(w)ijrasse and Yablä-Alise as the

Main centers of Sauska / ISTAR ’s worship, Dietrich - Mayer 1994; Dietrich 2004: 143.

684 Vieyra 1957; Haas - Thiel 1978: 30ff.; Haas 1979; Wegner 1981: passim; 1995c; 149£f.; Haas

A: 345ff,; Beckman 1998.

685 Lebrun 1976: 15£f., 42ff.; cf. also Wegner 1995c: 31 ff.

Wegner 1995c: lllff.

Archi 1993c; Haas 1994a: 393ff.; Frechel 1996; Archi 2002b.