HETHITES. - A people today well known after the texts of el-Amarna and of Boghazköy, often mentioned in the Bible (Hebr. Hēth, plur. Hittim; also bēnē Hēth; Septuagint Chettaiōn, Vulg. Hethaei), in the historical books. Some biblical passages refer to a kingdom of the H. and to a Hittite race living outside the land of Canaan; but neither the kingdom nor the land is localized. Recent discoveries proved the sacred text right and refuted the hasty assertions of the critics of half a century ago, who regarded the biblical affirmation of a Hittite empire as a gross error.
Explicit references to a "kingdom" of the H. are: 1 Kings 10:29: Solomon procured horses for the "kings" of the H. and for those of Damascus; 2 Kings 7:6: "Behold, the king of Israel has allied himself against us (Syrians) with the 'kings' of the H. and of the Egyptians, who will fight against us." Other texts seem to allude to an extra-Canaanite Hittite population. King Solomon had foreign wives: the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt, Moabite, Sidonian, Hittite women (1 Kings 11:1). Many centuries earlier, Esau son of Jacob married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite (Gen. 26:34). Judg. 1:22 ff. recounts that an unnamed man, driven from his city Luz, later called Bethel, went to the "land of the H." to found there a city to which the name Luz was given.
However, the majority of the biblical passages refer to H. living in Canaan. In the time of Abraham there lived in the region of Hebron (between Jerusalem and the Negeb) a colony of bēnē Hēth, or H., which seems to have possessed fairly extensive lands. The patriarch Abraham negotiates with them for the purchase of a field, which becomes a burial place for Sarah, his wife, for himself and his family. In the covenant made with Abraham (Gen. 15:18-21), and in the numerous texts where the inhabitants of the Promised Land are mentioned, the H. are mentioned alongside the Amorites and other peoples, immigrant or native, in Canaan. Num. 13:29 determines the geographical position of the populations that would be subjected to the chosen people: the H., the Jebusites, the Amorites (v.) dwell in the mountains, while the Canaanites dwell along the sea and in the vicinity of the Jordan. Moreover, two H. lived in the time of David (ca. 1025): Ahimelech (questioned by the persecuted fugitive: "Who will go down with me to Saul?": 1 Kings 26:6) and Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, victim of the murderous and adulterous King.
In the prophetic books only Ezek. 16:3, 45 alludes to the H., saying that the mother of Israel (that is, of the Hebrews) was a Hittite.
Giustino Boson
RELIGION OF THE HITTITES
The H. called themselves Hattu or rather "men of the country of the city of Hattu" or "Hattusas," the name of the capital. They were of Indo-European language, of mixed race, and superimposed themselves upon the populations of Asia Minor of another language and civilization, among whom the city of Hattu already enjoyed great prestige. The H. adopted as their national name that of the conquered people. The inhabitants of Hattusas prior to the H. are customarily called Hattic; they had a language entirely different from that proper to the H., though it was still spoken after the Hittite conquest and remained as the language of certain religious ceremonies. Up to now nothing precise is known about how the Empire of the H. was founded. It may be that Anittas of Kussar (approximately a contemporary of Hammurabi of Babylon) had a great part in it. It seems that the successors of this king, conqueror of various regions of Asia Minor, among which was the Kingdom of Hattusas, all belonged to that dynasty which held power in the Empire of the H. until its collapse around 1200. The apogee of power came toward the end, from 1400 to 1200, especially under the kings Suppiluliumas and Mursilis II, when the struggle in Syria with the Egyptians made the Empire formidable and a danger to Egypt.
The H., just as they had a civilization of their own, also had a particular religion which, although in its fundamental features it was similar to those of the other polytheistic ancient Eastern nations, and in the first place to that of the Babylonians and Assyrians, presents several peculiarities entirely different. It was polytheistic, with a very great number of divinities of diverse origin: divinities of Asia Minor prior to the H., divinities of the pantheons of the subjugated peoples, and finally divine figures proper to the H. and shared with the other stocks of Indo-European language. The pantheon of the Hittite Empire was therefore somewhat composite, all the more so since it also underwent the influence of that of the Babylonians through the intermediary of the pantheon of the Hurrians, who dwelt in the regions between Hittite Asia Minor and Babylonia and Assyria. The Hurrian influence is rather strong, not only in the pantheon but also in the myths, of which numerous are of Hurrian origin, although they have come down to us only in Hittite version.
The name of the national and principal god is still unknown, but that he was a god of the storm, of lightning, of rain and of the sky is attested already by his ideogram, which shows him to correspond to the Mesopotamian god Adad. Beside the storm god there is as his wife a goddess, the first in the pantheon of the Hattic, the sun goddess of Arinna, who, however, does not seem to have been a sun goddess, since the H. had a sun god different from this goddess, who had her great sanctuary in the city of Arinna. She is called "the queen of the lands," "the queen of heaven," "the lady of just judgment." To her the kings of the H. would send the reports of their military campaigns, and by her they swore in international treaties. Very important too was another goddess, the one to whom the Babylonians and Assyrians gave the name of Ištar. Besides the sun the H. also worshipped the moon: the moon god was Arma. Son of the supreme god was Telipinus, an agrarian divinity and of vegetation, of fertility, corresponding to the Mesopotamian god Tamuzu. The name of the god Innaras is perhaps related to that of the Indian Indra. The god Hasamilia had the power to hide people. Very ancient was the god Halmasuittis, divinity of Anittas of Kussar. The Hittite protective divinities were called Kulses. The H. had also personified certain abstract or moral concepts, such as Sin, Sincerity, Right, Heeding, and others.
Certain important divine figures of the Luwians, such as Santas and Kupapa, and of the inhabitants of the country of Palà, had entered into the Hittite pantheon. The Babylonian and Assyrian divinities of the pantheon were Anu together with his wife, Enlil and his wife, Ea and Damkina, Išhara and yet not a few other divine figures. The H. also had great veneration for rivers, mountains and the sea, of which they kept images in the temples.
They represented their divinities entirely anthropomorphically, as if they were men in every respect. Indeed they gave their gods all the physical and moral qualities characteristic of men.
The H. too had, like their neighbors, a rich flowering of myths, partly of Indo-European origin, partly of Mesopotamian provenance through the mythology of the Hurrians. Especially to be noted is the Myth of Telipinus, according to which this god disappeared one ill-fated day, whereupon vegetative and generative life ceased on earth. A search is made for the god, and finally the bee succeeds in tracking him down. The influence of the myth of Tamdzu on this mythical tale of the H. is evident. The tale of the storm god and the serpent Illuyankas has also been preserved. Of other myths there are only fragments. The H. had translated into their language the Babylonian myth of Gilgameš, that is, the Epic of Gilgameš: of this the Hittite version has preserved certain passages not yet found in the Assyrian redaction.
Below the gods in the hierarchy of beings stand numerous demons; below these, men, among whom the kings occupy a very pre-eminent position, since they are the vicars of the gods on earth and their representatives, and in the first place of personal divinities, such as the goddess Ištar, who was the personal divinity of King Hattusilis, favored by her therefore in all his enterprises.
What would happen and the will of the gods the H. sought to learn through mantic or the divinatory art, no less important among them than among the ancient Mesopotamians. Very many mantic texts in the Hittite language have been translated from Babylonian, others are based upon texts composed in that language. Among the mantic arts there stood out hepatoscopy, extispicy, astrology, predictions from the flight of birds, from defective births. The gods communicated their will also in dreams and sent birds to signify what men were to do. The future was predicted, moreover, from the fevers that struck the Hittite king. Ominous signs were seen in the changes undergone by the statues of the gods.
Very rich was the religious literature of the H. in magical and incantatory writings. Magic and incantations had a very great part in their religion, an aspect of their religious life that brings them close to the Babylonians and to primitive peoples. Especially sympathetic magic was very much in vogue. The clay tablets inscribed with Hittite texts have preserved many incantatory writings, describing ceremonies of conjuration, all full of prototypical magical acts.
The H. also knew the evocation of divinities from enemy cities to make them pass into their own camp, as the Romans did, and the cursing of conquered cities. Particular interdictions protected the person of the king, who had frequently to submit to purificatory acts to render himself immune from deleterious contacts. The H. had a very elaborate doctrine on sin, which was held to strike with its consequences sometimes even the successors of the true sinners. Sacrifice was similar to that of the other ancient Eastern nations: it had the character of a meal and of an offering presented to the god. The composition of the numerous and influential priestly caste did not vary much from that of the priests among the Mesopotamians. The religious literature was rich in rituals with the minute description of feasts and religious ceremonies. In the rites there are still found several of Hattic origin.
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe Furlani