Hurrian Religion

The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic belief system of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who mainly inhabited the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent. These beliefs were shaped by contact between Hurrians and surrounding cultures. As a result, the Hurrian pantheon included both native Hurrian deities and those of foreign origin adopted from Mesopotamian, Syrian (chiefly Eblaite and Ugaritic), Anatolian and Elamite religions. Hurrian religion exerted a major influence on Hittite religion. The Hurrian pantheon is depicted in thirteenth century BCE rock reliefs of the Hittite sanctuary at Yazılıkaya. Hittite scribes also translated many Hurrian myths into their own language, possibly based on oral traditions transmitted by Hurrian singers. Best known of these are cycle of myths describing conflicts between Kumarbi and his son Teshub (father and son who were adversaries in a protracted struggle to determine who would become king of the gods) and the Song of Release (A late Bronze Age poem describing people from the city of Igingallish who were held as captives by neighboring Ebla. Storm god Teshub, estranged son of Kumarbi, demands that the king of Ebla release his captives. Teshub promises prosperity if the king does this, and destruction if he does not. Elba is soon destroyed, so presumably the Igingallish captives were never freed. The underlying theme of this poem is the loss of freedom and independence of Bronze Age peoples as a result of the rise of host of authoritarian ancient empire bulders). To a lesser extent, the Hurrians also influenced Ugaritic and Mesopotamian religions. Some scholars have argued that Hurrian myths describing the struggle for succession between various primordial kings of the gods (Kumarbi and son Teshub, for example) influenced Hesiod's poem Theogony. Hurrian religion was not uniform, but was modified to suit the needs of local groups of worshippers. Like other cultures of the ancient Near East, Hurrian gods were imagined as being anthropomorphic. They must be provided with nourishment, which they received in the form of offerings. Leadership of the Hurrian pantheon ultimately devolved to weather god Teššub (Teshub, son and advesary of Kumarbi). Hurrians also worshiped Šauška, whose primary spheres of influence were love and war. She was depicted as both a male and a female. Divination is well documented feature of Hurrian religion. An inquiry directed to a specific deity was accompanied by the examination of a sacrificed animal's entrails, particularly its liver. This usage is termed hepatoscopy ("looking at a liver") and contined to be practiced by several ancient cultures including that of Imperial Rome.