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Hittite Mythology

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Religion

The Resume

    Born in Turkey
    'Highly developed polytheistic system' or religion of the Hittite peoples of ancient Anatolia which was located in modern day eastern Turkey
    Was at its strongest between 1400 and 1200 BC
    Most powerful god was the Weather God (pictured)

Why Hittite Mythology might be annoying:

    Virtually nothing is known of its development; scholar Hans Gustav Guterbach once wrote 'No development or history of Hittite religion can... be traced.'
    Unusually, the various gods were associated with individual geographic areas or linguistic or ethnic groups, i.e., the grain god in one village would not be the same grain god in a distant village.
    The writings about the Hittite religion that survive concentrate on the Hittite Empire and not the lives and beliefs of the everyday people.
    Many of the surviving writings from the time have still not been translated.
    Religious practices included astrology, using oracles, and 'reading' the entrails of sacrificial animals.
    Mausoleums owned property and had employees that could only marry other employees.
    Little is known about practitioners' views of the afterlife or the religion's moral strictures.

Why Hittite Mythology might not be annoying:

    Its followers were big on feasts and complex rituals that often included drinking large amounts of beer and/or wine.
    Practicing black magic carried the death penalty.
    It produced fascinating and literate myths; one of which included the story of one god who bit off his grandfather's penis which made him pregnant with three other gods and made the Earth pregnant when he spit the penis out and hit the Earth with it.
    It is considered a link between the East and the West.
    It probably had at least some influence on Greek mythology.
    The Old Testament speaks of them in fairly positive terms.

Credit: tom_jeffords


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