The Obituary
Tarhunz was the storm and weather god of the Luwians, known also to the Hittites, pictured wielding an axe and the lightning-bolt and riding a bull-drawn chariot. A chief deity of the Luwian-speaking peoples, he was carved on the stone reliefs of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms of Iron Age Anatolia and Syria. His cult was tied to those states and their language. As the Hittite empire collapsed and the Neo-Hittite kingdoms fell to Assyria and others over the early first millennium BCE, the Luwian tongue died and Tarhunz’s worship faded into silence.
Worth remembering
- He was imagined riding a chariot drawn by bulls, brandishing an axe in one hand and the forked bolt of lightning in the other.
- His worship spread among the Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite kingdoms, whose stone reliefs still show him striding over mountains with his weapons raised.
Sources
- Tarhunz was the weather and storm god of the Luwians, also known to the Hittites, depicted wielding an axe and lightning. Wikipedia
- Tarhunz was a chief deity of the Luwian-speaking peoples and the Neo-Hittite states of Iron Age Anatolia and Syria. World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.