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Luwian religion was the religious and mythological beliefs and practices of the Luwians, an Indo-European people of Asia Minor, which is detectable from the Bronze Age until the early Roman Empire. It was strongly affected by foreign influence in all periods and it is not possible to clearly separate it from neighbouring cultures, particularly ...
"Luwian" is an exonym first used by the Hittites as an "ethno-linguistic term referring to the area where Luwian was spoken" [1] in Bronze Age Anatolia. It has been suggested that the name is a foreign ethnic designation ( Assyrian ) borrowed from another foreign ethnic designation ( Hurrian ) - nuwā-um . [ 2 ]
Most of the theophoric names invoking him are Luwian. [1] According to Piotr Taracha, while there was no single Luwian pantheon, attestations of him are known from all areas inhabited by Luwians, similarly as in the case of major deities such as Tarḫunz, Arma, Tiwad, Iyarri, Kamrušepa or Maliya. [26]
The toponym Istanuwa is named only in the Luwian ritual texts known as the Songs of Istanuwa and the Songs of the Men of Lallupiya. [1] Woudhuizen regarded it as an Arzawan word that originated before "the infiltration of Thracian and Phrygian population groups" [2] ultimately derived from the Indo-Iranian root istan ("land") and the foreign ethnic designation nuwā-um ("Luwian"). [3]
In the Iron Age, she nonetheless became the main goddess in the Luwian pantheon. [15] Possibly in the aftermath of the fall of the Hittite Empire, Hurrian and Luwian traditions mixed, leading to the formation of the late form of the Luwian pantheon, which included her. [72] She continued to be worshiped in Carchemish. [73]
Though drawing on ancient Mesopotamian religion, the religion of the Hittites and Luwians retains noticeable elements of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology.For example, Tarhunt, the god of thunder and his conflict with the serpent Illuyanka resembles the conflict between Indra and the cosmic serpent Vritra in Vedic mythology, or Thor and the serpent Jörmungandr in Norse mythology.
The Luwian god Tarḫunz worshipped by the Iron Age Neo-Hittite states was closely related to Tarḫunna, [19] Personal names referring to Tarḫunz, like "Trokondas", are attested into Roman times. [20] Tarhunna has also been identified with the later Armenian and Roman god, Jupiter Dolichenus. [21]
A Luwian innovation is the idea of the weather god of the vineyard. [21] He is first attested in a southern Anatolian vineyard ritual from the 16th century BC, in which he is called upon to make the royal vineyard thrive, along with the goddess Mamma and other divine couples, like Runtiya and Ala or Telipinu and Maliya .