Explore Ancient Anatolia

The Hattian mythology deals with the myths and stories of the Hatti gods, as they were handed down by the Hittites. They can be captured quite well by the source position, in contrast to Hattian cults, rituals and religious beliefs that can not be separated satisfactorily from Hittite and other elements.

We are on a mound, in the ruins of a Bronze Age palace, watching the magnificent Mt. Hasandag at sunset thru the ruined windows of the palace, burned down to earth, mud bricks fired to ceramic, walls molten down by a violent fire. We are in a time and place lost and forgotten through ages, covered with dust and earth, at the edge of Cappadocia, on the Konya Plain. We are in a place at the beginning of the period of Assyrian Trade Colonies as well as the Middle Bronze Age and the beginning of written history in Anatolia.

In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka was a serpentine dragon slain by Tarhunt, the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian god of sky and storm. It is known from Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Çorum-Boğazköy, the former Hittite capital Hattusa. The context is a ritual of the Hattian spring festival of Puruli. The myth is found in Catalogue des Textes Hittites 321. It is indeed preserved only in Hittite language, but since the names of the characters are Hattic especially, it is considered Hattic myth. It survives in two versions. This myth shows strong resemblance to the ancient myth of Typhon.