Passing over to the non-Semitic group of Anatolian cults, and
considering first the Hittite, we have ample evidence in the great
relief of Boghaz-Keui of the importance of the goddess; and it may
well be, as Dr. Frazer has conjectured, that that monument, on which
we see the great god borne on the shoulders of his worshippers to meet
the goddess on the lion, gives us the scene of a Holy marriage.[87.1]
We find the male and female divinity united in a common worship on a
relief found near Caesarea in the middle of Cappadocia, on the left
side of which is depicted a warrior-god standing before a
pillar-shaped altar, while a man in the guise of a warrior is pouring
a libation before him; on the right is a similar scene, making
libation before a seated goddess, on whose altar a bird is
seated.[87.2] Besides this, we have another type of goddess shown us
on a Hittite votive-relief, on which is carved a large seated female
figure with a child on her knees; we may surely interpret this as a
θεὰ κουροτρόφος.[87.3] Again, on two of the reliefs at Euzuk we find
a seated goddess holding a goblet and approached with prayers,
libations, and other offerings by priest and priestess,[87.4] and we
may venture to add to this list of Hittite types the mysterious veiled
goddess found by Von Oppenheim at Tel-Halaf in Mesopotamia on the
Chabur, a branch of Euphrates, with an inscription containing the name
Asshur, a work which, on the evidence of other cuneiform inscriptions
found on the site, he would date near to {88} 900 B.C.[88.1] But this
evidence in no way amounts to any proof or affords any suggestion of
the predominance of the goddess--and the Tel-El-Amarna correspondence
of the Hittite kings implies that the male and female divinity were
linked in an equal union in the Hittite religion. The text of the
treaty between Rameses II. and the Kheta (_circ._ 1290 B.C.) includes
various sun-gods, Sutekh, the Egyptian name for the Hittite war-god,
and Antheret (possibly a form of the name Astoret), and other
goddesses called “the Queen of Heaven, the Mistress of the Soil, the
Mistress of Mountains.”[88.2] Can we draw any conclusions from that
extraordinary monument from Fassirlir[88.3] on the borders of
Lycaonia and Pisidia, representing a young god in a high cap that
suggests Hittite fashion, standing on the neck of a stooping goddess
at whose side are two lions? This might seem a naïve indication of
male supremacy; but the sex of the supporting figure does not seem
clear.[88.4]
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