The land of the Hittites

by John Garstang

This respect of the worshippers of the Mother-Goddess for the female was inculcated by them among various branches of their peoples. It will not be forgotten that the founder of the Hatti dynasty, when he admitted the fugitive Mitannian prince to his family and extended to him his protection, laid down the condition of a monogamous marriage. So, too, Hattusil, in granting his daughter to the Amorite chieftain, Put-akhi, whom in like manner he re-established in his authority, inserted in the document recording the alliance a clause to the effect that the sovereignty over the Amorite should belong to the son and descendants of his daughter for evermore.

These indications all agree with the impression that Greek tradition and the Hittite monuments have already left upon our minds. The worship of the Mother-Goddess, to which we have alluded, would seem, indeed, to have been paramount throughout the Hittite lands, from Carchemish to Ephesus, from Kadesh to the coast of the Black Sea. Originally a nature cult, derivable from the productivity of the earth, this had now taken divine form with the quality of self-reproduction, to develop later into the conception of a universal mother. Though this worship was general throughout western Asia, its introduction into Asia Minor is traceable to the Hittites, upon whose monuments its symbolism appears earlier than it is known elsewhere, notably at Boghaz-Keui,[832] Eyuk,[833] Fraktin,[834] and on Sipylus.[835] We do not wish to imply a local development of the cult, though that may be admitted as a possibility when we consider the simple and general nature of its origins, and the power of the human mind then as now to attain in a few years the standpoint reached only by generations of ancestral experiences, and thereon to build up new conceptions, to be transmitted in like manner together with those inherited. Yet on the fertile plains of Babylonia the seasonal productivity of nature was more conspicuous and almost spontaneous; there indeed, as it seems, man was earlier able to give up his wandering life and settle, noting with satisfaction and gratitude that earth and sunshine with other elemental forces provided him with the means of living. Taking also the evidence as it stands, it would seem that the embodiment of these conceptions in divine form (under the name Istar) is earliest attributable to Babylonia; and from there consequently we are disposed to derive her when found in Asia Minor, whether by general contact, as is historically admissible, or introduced, as seems more probable, by some early migration of Hittite peoples that had already assimilated her to themselves.

The worship of a goddess with virtues so natural and with powers that it was so desirable to propitiate would, in any case, it may be thought, be readily acceptable to a peasant people. It became deeply rooted, and in certain localities took special forms, reflected many centuries later in rites like those of Ma at Comana, Kybele in Phrygia, Artemis at Ephesus, and, latest of all, Semiramis at the post-Hittite city at Carchemish. From the sculptures of Boghaz-Keui[836] it may be seen that, as in Babylonia, there was already associated with her a youth, whose male powers were necessary to complete her own. With her also there appears a lioness or panther whose force and character seemed to be emblematic of hers. Though clearly attributable to an earlier phase of thought, this association may have been made before the cult was localised. There are, however, traces in these sculptures of more primitive conceptions, attributable to older strains of population. From the evidence in general, four or five strata, indeed, may be discerned in the Hittite pantheon. In the lowest of these there appear the purely elemental forms, mountains and streams,[837] earth,[838] sun,[839] moon[840] and star.[841] Passing from the inanimate to the animate, we find the lion,[842] the bull,[843] the eagle,[844] the falcon or dove,[845] the goat,[846] the stag, the serpent[847] and other living creatures, some of them possibly adopted as tribal totems, and all no doubt representing some special virtue or power that later became embodied in the deities associated with them. Upon these substrata the gods of human form appear to be imposed, and first among these the Mother-goddess. Already, as we have noticed in these sculptures,[848] her supreme powers in life and her unfathomable actions had found expression in the semblance of a lion, before she was adopted by the mountain-worshippers; and another class of monument, possibly of later evolution, seems to reveal her in another aspect, as a goddess to be propitiated at death. The two ideas in her case are not far separated; for just as in the simplest conception of her powers through her the dead earth revived, while in her developed cult, her dead son yet lived in her offspring (through her unnatural union with him), so the instinctive belief of humanity in the incompleteness of death found expression in offerings to her for the dead,[849] and in communion of the dead at her table.[850] The idea of a future life after death was inseparable from her worship.

In the sculptures[851] of these times there are associated with the goddess a number of divine attendants and priestesses, each holding as it seems a bent staff upon which she leans. These are not armed, but in them we may see the prototypes of a class of women devoted to the goddess, who in later centuries, on the decline of the Hittite power, at the coming maybe of the Phrygians, at first for the defence of their religion, and later separating in independent action, developed into armed priestesses, and possibly the Amazons of tradition.[852] But that was not yet; nor do we see in any of the shrines of the goddess of this age any sign or suggestion of the orgies and carnal festivals that a thousand years later were celebrated in her name. On the other hand, we see the cult at this age in its simplicity; in some cases the goddess worshipped alone, in others accompanied by the son-consort, whose position in legend and at Boghaz-Keui is secondary to her own. In the latter case, however, she is face to face with another god who is her equal. We have been able to trace in these sculptures to some extent the merging of this religion with the old conceptions, and now we pass to consider its union with the new.

In this fourth phase the male predominates. The new divinity was a god omnipotent, with lightning in his hand. We call him Sandes, from a name surviving in Greek tradition in Cilicia and Lydia; but his real name is unknown. Possibly Tarku was one Hittite form of it; but at this period of his conspicuous individuality Baal or Zeus would suit him better. Like the goddess, he was well known in western Asia under various guises, the Tessub of Mitanni, the Hadad of Syria, the Rimmon of Babylonia. He came into Asia Minor, it seems to us, as guardian deity of the conquering Hatti, clad like their warriors; and in their wake came a limited number of kindred tribes, among whom also he was worshipped under various forms,[853] notably as a God of War with sword in hand.[854] By them he was transmitted as the national god to the other Hittite peoples, whose tutelary deities, however, seem to have been various.[855] In him, the embodiment of manly strength, the nature worshippers saw the sun, ruling in the skies,[856] supreme, a fitting husband for their Mother Earth. It was not hard to reconcile the cults. Just as the sun’s return in spring-time to shine upon the earth was necessary to revivify the dead year; so was the periodic union of the god with the goddess natural and appropriate, that the earth might bring forth her fruits in due season. The sculptures[857] illustrate the rite that arose upon this new ideal, where we see the statue of the god borne upon the shoulders of his priests to the open-air sanctuary of the goddess, and the divine nuptials celebrated with the dancing and revelry that have accompanied marriage festivals through all time.

The conception of Fatherhood, hitherto submerged, now found expression in independent form, wherein the new god was identified with the Bull, the emblem of virility. At Malatia[858] the god rides upon the animal’s back; at Eyuk[859] the animal alone is found, in a scene where his ministers are the royal high priest and priestess, the counterpart to the worship of the goddess herself on the other side of the gateway. In this character food and music and revelry were his delight. There were present all the elements which under other conditions might have led to the development of a special and exaggerated worship of masculine powers. But here the circumstances were unfavourable. So long, indeed, as the warrior kings maintained the throne, their god also retained his individuality,[860] amid an environment, however, too deeply imbued with the older ideals to maintain his separate worship after their downfall. Already we see one way in which his cult was liable to be submerged; for the part he now claimed, as it were, by force, had been hitherto played in esoteric fashion by the son. Hence a new identity arose, in which the attributes of the father-god and the son-god became confused and merged in one.[861] This fact seems to be reflected even in the sculptures of Boghaz-Keui, where the cult of a dirk, which each important male figure wears, becomes endowed with a separate ritual.[862] Possibly, however, this may be more particularly an aspect of the son-god, and associated with the ritual of the Mother-goddess. It was, moreover, a national cult, widespread, and revered.[863] In any case the association of the Father-god with the Son-god in the cult of the Mother-goddess, nature’s divine triad, seems to us an essential feature of the religion of these times.

The part played by the king and his queen in this worship is clear in the sculptures of Eyuk[864] and Malatia,[865] and their position as high priest and priestess of the god is defined in the text of the Egyptian treaty.[866] Whether the king himself took an official position in the worship of the goddess is still open to conjecture; for the pictures of the high priest at Boghaz-Keui,[867] though accompanied by the royal insignia, are open to another interpretation,[868] and possibly in her festivals the king’s place was taken by a eunuch-priest of considerable authority, in accordance with a ritual long established and surviving in later times. At Sinjerli there is an interesting suggestion in a certain series of sculptures[869] belonging possibly to this era. In comparing these it seems to us that the king himself is shown impersonating his gods or god in various characters; in one he is the warrior with shield and spear, in another he holds aloft the lightning trident, and in a third we see him like Thor with a magic hammer. In the rites of the various deities the king may possibly have carried these sacred emblems ceremonially.

The position of the Hatti kings in state affairs, the nature of their kingdom and their empire, has been already disclosed in watching how their power was won.[870] The army was the mainstay of their empire, yet no martial scenes decorate the walls of the palaces and temples that have been hitherto unearthed. This may be accounted for by the essentially feudal nature of the constitution, whereby the bulk of the forces would be composed of troops under the more direct command of the vassal kings and chieftains. Within the domain of his own tribe or tribes, though doubtless a royal bodyguard was maintained, it would almost seem that the power of the Hittite king was sustained rather by constitutional rights such as have been indicated. Some of the religious sculptures, however, give an indication, though in somewhat conventional and maybe antiquated form, of the dress and armour of the Hittite infantry; while the general character of their chariots and arms may be gathered from the hunting scenes of later date in Syrian towns. Where the home sources fail, the Egyptian carvings supply a wealth of detail illustrating all branches of the Hittite forces;[871] and these, though drawn as it were from afar, have none the less the advantage of being contemporary evidence, recorded, too, by past-masters in this branch of archivism, who allowed no characteristic detail to escape them.

The freest drawing of a foot-soldier is that from Sinjerli,[872] wherein a warrior is seen armed with a spear and shield; the head of the spear is narrow and ribbed down the middle, and the shaft is about the length of the man; the defensive weapon is of the figure-of-eight shape traditional in Asia Minor, and associated with some branches of the Hittites in Egyptian sculptures.[873] The dirk which is worn, an invariable side-arm of the Hittites, is here shown so long that it looks almost like a two-edged sword; from other sculptures, however, like those of Giaour-Kalesi[874] and Boghaz-Keui,[875] we may be sure that a dirk or dagger is indicated. The crescental hilt and the midrib are noticeable features. That the sword was used, however, may be gathered from other scenes.[876] The dress of the Hittite warrior, like that of his gods, was uniformly the short tunic, short-sleeved vest, shoes with turned-up points, and tall conical hat; the last named is seemingly padded in this instance at the top. Equestrians and charioteers seem to have modified or discarded this head-dress[877] as being unsuitable for rapid motion. In addition to the spear, the bow was doubtless used by both infantry[878] and chariotry;[879] but other implements, originally of an offensive character, like the club, double-axe,[880] mace, and curved dagger,[881] are found only in religious symbolism in such connection that it must be considered doubtful whether they continued to be used in war. The throw-stick is, however, admissible, though found only in sporting scenes.[882] As to the Hittite cavalry the local sources almost fail us. Two stones from Sinjerli show a rider armed with bow and dagger, and possibly a shield decorated with a human face;[883] and a third sculpture from the same site introduces a large round shield and possibly a quiver.[884] There is also a fragment, possibly from Marash, showing a horse rider,[885] though apparently not in that instance a fighting man. In another case a led horse is shown, with attendant groom, as though awaiting his royal master’s pleasure.[886] In Egyptian scenes,[887] however, the Hittite horse-rider is conspicuous, fleeing before the Pharaoh’s arrows, himself armed with a lance; and in two literary passages at least, clear reference is made to the Hittite cavalry.[888]

The chariotry of the Hittites was, however, their chief arm of offence. Unfortunately only one war-chariot is shown in their own sculptures,[889] and this is apparently of later date and employed in an inter-tribal struggle. In this case two persons are shown in the car, the warrior and his driver. The wheel has six spokes, the car is lightly built, and a pair of horses are harnessed to it.[890] The warrior’s arms are the bow and spear. Other chariots appear in hunting scenes, showing little variation except the eight-spoked wheels; but it may be thought from the Egyptian representations that a somewhat heavier car with panelled sides was employed for war. The magnificent appearance of the massed Hittite chariots in attack excited the admiration of their enemies, the Egyptians, who have handed down vivid pictures of them taken from their wars: the assault on a hill,[891] an incident in the battle of Kadesh, shows excellent formation in close order while advancing at a gallop. The Egyptians were unanimous in representing three Hittites in each car, a practice which differed from their own, and so attracted their attention. The third man was a shield-bearer, whose absence from the hunting scenes of the Hittite sculptures is self-explanatory. A square shield, mostly associated with the Syrian allies, makes its appearance in the scene before us; but the Egyptian artists were so much perplexed by the necessity of crowding and showing three men within the tiny car, that they forgot or found no room for the offensive arms of their redoubtable enemy.