Šuwaliyatt: Name kult und profil eines hethitischen gottes

Abstract

The article offers a comprehensive discussion of the Hittite god Šuwaliyatt, written in Hittite sources with the logograms uraš and nin.urta as well as syllabically. An examination of the etymology of the Hittite name Šuwaliyatt concludes that the name may perhaps be derived from Hittite šuwa(i)- “to fill”. Šuwaliyatt’s role in the cult rituals belonging to the Old Anatolian tradition shows him to be a god of vegetation and agriculture, possibly with chthonic aspects; the responsibility for vegetation and agriculture is probably also the rationale of the scribal equation of Šuwaliyatt with Babylonian Ninurta. The festival texts indicate that there was a fixed installation in the temple of the Storm-god (probably at Hattusa) that represented Šuwaliyatt; its exact form is a moot point. Šuwaliyatt’s role in the cult festivals of the Hurro- Hittite tradition is determined by Šuwaliyatt’s identification with Tašmišu, the brother and vizier of the Hurrian Storm-god Teššub. The association of Tašmišu with Šuwaliyatt is probably due to Tašmišu’s position in the Hurrian pantheon: Tašmišu is usually named between the Storm-god and Ḫalki/nisaba/ Kumarbi; this is similar to Šuwaliyatt’s position in the Old Anatolian rituals, which name Šuwaliyatt side by side with Ḫalki, often preceded by the Storm-god.