sun gods and Ishtars (or Ishtar-equivalents) in the texts, often
located in obscure parts of the Hittite realm. Tolerance in
recognising the individuality of each of these was sometimes
outweighed by the inconvenience of doing so. Particularly when it
came to identifying a deity to whom offence had been given and who
needed to be appeased by appropriate rituals.
As we noted in Chapter 13, the causes of a wide range of
afflictions, whether suffered by an individual or by the whole land,
were attributed to divine wrath. And before the afflictions could
be cured, the offended deity or deities hadfirst to be identified.
Which could mean a lengthy period of oracular consultation.
Thus King Mursili II probably had to go through a protracted
trial-and-error process tofind outwhichgod had caused his
speech affliction before he got his answer. In this case, the Storm
God of an obscure region called Manuzziya wasfinally identified
as the cause of his ailment. Once that was established, the next
step could be taken – appeasing the offended deity with a
prescribed ritual, which hopefully resulted in a cure. (We never
find out whether in Mursili’scaseitdid.)
So we can see here one of the big advantages that monotheistic
religions, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam have over polytheistic
ones. They are much more economical. The monotheistic god is
omnipresent. He can be prayed to everywhere and anywhere without
having to be summoned to a particular synagogue, church or
mosque to hear what you want to say to him or ask him. And there’s
no chance of your prayer going astray and reaching the wrong god–
because there isn’t any other god. Later in the empire, Queen
Puduhepa, of Hurrian origin and Hattusili III’s chief wife, realised
that‘extreme polytheism’was getting rather out of hand, and she
began a process of syncretising at least the chief deities–that is,
identifying Hittite gods with their foreign counterparts. Thus the
Hittites’chief goddess, the Sun Goddess of Arinna, was identified
with her Hurrian counterpart Hepat. Her husband, the Storm God of
Hatti, was identified with his Hurrian equivalent Teshub, and a son
of the pair, called Sharrumma in Hurrian, was identified with the
Storm God of Nerik. The rationalisation of the Hittite pantheon
never really proceeded beyond this point. But it does reflect the
HATTI’S DIVINE OVERLORDS 241