Continuity and change in the Hittite state pantheon and. royal ideology of the

Empire period perfectly fits the conclusions drawn from. a Conference on Steady States

At the British Academy in September 2004. In the introductory chapter Harriet

Crawford writes: “Continuity did not mean Stagnation. Change certainly did occur,

But it seems to have occurred not immediately after the regirne change, but with-

in one or two generations of that change, that is to say, after about fifty years...

“When change does come, the reasons for it are varied. We can suggest, for

Example, that it is only after a period of time that newcomers to the throne feel

Confident enough to modify the existing ideology; on the other band, we have al-

Ready seen that a conqueror from within the same cultural sphere as the conquered

May share the same mentalite and this may contribute to a desire for continuity.

Any conqueror may initially be anxious to cast himself as the legitimate successor

Chosen by the local gods, whose worship and maintenance therefore has to be one of

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His first priorities.”

Having defeated the Kaskeans, Hattusili III recovered the territories in the north

With the holy city of Nerik. The reorganization of local cults after such a long Kaskean

Occupation, continued unbroken by Hattusili’s successor, Tuthaliya IV, naturally could

Not lead to a faithful restoration of the Old Hittite traditions. Gods previously not

Confirmed in the texts, including ones from Southern Anatolia, now appeared in the

Pantheons of many towns in the north; new centers which had little to say in the

State cult of the OM Hittite period now gained in significance. Nonetheless, the fact

That a deity from the Empire period is absent from earlier texts can sometimes be due

To the poor state of preservation and insignificant number of Old Hittite sources.

Central and northem Anatolia was changing ethnically even as the Hittite state

Enlarged its territories. The pestilence which ravaged the land of Hatti from the end

Of the reign of Suppiluliuma I to the times of Mursili II, devastated Hattusa and the

Crawford 2007: 4.

84

HlTTITE AnaTOLXA

Neighborhood of the city. Rulers forcibly transferred Luwian population groups fiom

The south and west, of Asia Minor to the depopulated regions. In the thirteenth Cen

Tury BC, the people in Hattusa and vicinity appear to have spoken Luwian, Hittite

being used only by the state Chancery.' Hattusili III and his son Tuthaliya IV fol-

Iowed a similar Settlement strategy in the recovered northem territories, The re-

Sulting changes in local beliefs find expression in preserved texts from the royal

Archives in Hattusa.

State pantheon

From the outset of the Empire period the Anatolian Storm-god, who traditionally

Stood at the head of the state pantheon by the side of the Sun-goddess of Arinna,

appears in the disguise of the Hurrian Tessub. 4 " 6 Tessub’s inseparable companion

Was his brother Tasmisu, known in Asia Minor by the name of a local god, Suwa-

V

liyat.' The Storm-god (Tessub) and Suwaliyat (Tasmisu) are regularly enumerated

Side by side on lists of gods worshiped during state cult festivals. This change was

Clearly influenced by the beliefs of the new dynasty of Kizzuwatnean origin. Ebr the

First time also the name of the Storm-god is written with the logogram D U borrowed

from northem Syria, appearing next to the earlier °ISKUR 438

Change in the third Position in the supreme triad of the official pantheon came

With the popularization of tutelary LAMMA gods from the Luwian milieu in Hattu

Sa (3.2.4). The logogram LAMMA denotes the Luwian term annari, corresponding to

the Hittite innara ‘strong, robust,’ thus Clearing the way for use of this logogram to

Write the name of. the goddess Inar, regardless of a complementary fact that in her