The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empireSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empire
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Hittites
This stone, like the seated figure on Mount Sipylos, is a witness that
her cult was carried westward by the Hittite armies. Later tradition
preserved a reminiscence of the fact. The Lydian hero Kayster was said
to have gone to Syria, and there had Derketô for his bride, while on the
other hand it was a Lydian, Mopsos, who was believed to have drowned the
goddess Derketô in the sacred lake of Ashkelon. We have here, it may be,
recollections of the days when Lydian soldiers marched against Egypt
under the leadership of Hittite princes, and learnt to know the name and
the character of Athar-'Ati, the goddess of Carchemish.
The Babylonian Istar was accompanied by her son and bridegroom Tammuz,
the youthful Sun-god, the story of whose untimely death made a deep
impression on the popular mind. Even in Jerusalem Ezekiel saw the women
weeping for the death of Tammuz within the precincts of the temple
itself; and for days together each year in the Phoenician cities the
festival of his death and resurrection were observed with fanatic zeal.
In Syria he was called Hadad, and identified with the god Rimmon, so
that Zechariah (xii. 11) speaks of the mourning for Hadad-Rimmon in the
valley of Megiddo. At Hierapolis and Aleppo also he was known as Hadad
or Dadi, while throughout Asia Minor he was adored under the name of
Attys, 'the shepherd of the bright stars.' The myth which told of his
death underwent a slight change of form among the Hittites, and through
them among the tribes of Asia Minor. He is doubtless the young god who
on the rocks of Boghaz Keui appears behind the mother-goddess, riding
like her on the back of a panther or lion.
The people of Mabog did not forget that their temple was but the
successor of an older one, and that Carchemish had once been the 'Holy
City' of Northern Syria. The legends, therefore, which referred to the
foundation of the sanctuary were said to relate to one which had
formerly existed, but had long since fallen into decay. The origin of
the temple visited by Lucian was ascribed to a certain 'Stratonikê, the
wife of the Assyrian king.' But Stratonikê is merely a Greek
transformation of some Semitic epithet of 'Ashtoreth,' and marks the
time when the Phoenician Ashtoreth took the place of the earlier
Athar-'Ati. A strange legend was told of the youthful Kombabos, who was
sent from Babylon to take part in the building of the shrine. Kombabos
was but Tammuz under another name, just as Stratonikê was Istar, and the
legend is chiefly interesting as testifying to the religious influence
once exercised by the Babylonians upon the Hittite people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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