Did the Storm God of Zippalanda have a Mother or a Wife? Remarks about the Cults of Kataḫḫa and the Sun Goddess of the Earth in Zippalanda and Ankuwa

Abstract

Two important female deities of the Hittite Pantheon are related to the Storm God of Zippalanda: the Sun Goddess of the Earth, surely worshipped in the same city, and the Hattian Kataḫḫa “The Queen”, whose cult flourished in the nearby town Ankuwa. Beyond that, in the Late Hittite period all the local Storm Gods were openly adopted by the main couple of the pantheon, the Sun Goddess of Arinna and the Storm God of Ḫatti, as clearly represented in the prayer of Puduḫepa to the Sun Goddess of Arinna. Possible ties and relations among these female deities and the Storm God of Zippalanda, and the ways of their cults in the cities of Ankuwa and Zippalanda are analyzed here.