A READER IN COMPARATIVE INDO-EUROPEAN MYTHOLOGY

(in the shape of a bull he impregnated his mistress Europa). But, on the whole, it appears that
Hittites, as well as Indo-Europeans, worshipped their gods in the human shape, but that, being
very powerful, the gods could, if they wished, change their shape into particular animals.
As in many other religions of the Ancient Near East, the proper attitude of humans towards
gods is the one of slaves, or servants to their masters. The structure of the divine society is
modelled according to the structure of the human society, so that, for instance, the king is seen
as the chief servant of the gods. If they are not served properly, the gods are likely to take
offence, and to punish the negligent servant and his property (including his family and his
land, i.e. the land of the Hittites). Only regular sacrifices can supress the wrath of the gods,
who usually do not forget the sins of the humans. When king Shuppilulliumash («He of the
pure sources») forgot to perform the sacrifice to the river Mala (Euphrates), the plague
ravished his land for twenty years. Failure to perform the proper sacrifices is a sin, just like
breaking one of many taboos that affected the life of ordinary people as well as of kings. The
most awful of all taboos are called hurkil, e.g. having sex with cows, dogs, or pigs, but,
interestingly, having sex with horses is not a hurkil according to Hittite laws.
In the last decades of the existence of the Hittite empire, it seems that a new conception
gained ground: the last Hittite kings had their own personal protectors, with whom they
established a more personal relationship; as Hattushili III tells us in his autobiography, he was
the favourite of Ishtar of Shamukha since he was born, and it was this goddess that helped his
way to the throne. It is important to note that many Hittites bore theophoric names, but some
of these names were never recorded outside of the royal family. This might mean that several
deities – including, probably, most of the Hattic gods and goddesses – were only worshipped
at the court, as part of the official cult, whereas they were practically unknown among the
ordinary people.
Eschatological conceptions of the Hittites are not altogether clear; broken vessels in tombs,
together with remains of food and drinks, clearly indicate that some sort of afterlife was
envisaged, and in the case of the king, it was generally thought that he would be deified after
his death; in fact, the common expression for 'he died', when applied to kings, is 'he became
god'. Note that in Egypt, the Pharaohs were thought to be gods already during their lifetime,
and the Hittite habit of deifying their kings is similar to Roman solemn declarations by the
Senate that people like Caesar, Augustus, and other emperors became gods after dying. There
is, moreover, the conception of the «meadow of the otherworld» (Hitt. wellu-), where the king
is supposed to pasture his flocks in the afterlife. This has clear parallels in Greek (the Elysian
fields) and, perhaps, Celtic (OIr. mag mell). It is quite unclear where the meadow of the
otherworld is supposed to be located.
The priests were a numerous and very privileged caste in the Hittite society. Their duty was to
take care of the temple, seen as the house of gods. The gods were thought to be actually living
in the temple, and they were represented by their statues, many of which were excavated at
Hittite sites. Taking away a statue of a god was considered as an ill-omen. The priests were
also responsible for various rites and sacrifices, and these had to be performed according to
rigidly prescribed instructions, in conditions of ritual purity – pollution or impurity (Hitt.