Teshub

A Hurrian or Hittite relief of Teshub

**Teshub** was the Hurrian god of the sky, thunder, and storms, who was was worshipped in Anatolia and Syria.

## Mythology

### Succession of the Gods

Teshub is an important deity in the succession of the Hurrian gods. He was conceived by Kumarbi, the head of the pantheon, who had deposed Anu, the previous head of the pantheon, by swallowing his genitals. Teshub would in turn usurp Kumarbi and banish him into the underworld. Defeated, Kumarbi still tried to regain his position back by sending monsters (such as Ullikummi) to challenge his son, though Teshub and the other gods could fight them off and keep the cosmic order.

### Epic of Liberation

In this mythology Teshub travels to underworld and meet with Allani, the ruler of the underworld. The storm god demands the goddess to release/liberation of certain captives from the city of Ebla. This story likely served as an aetiology or allegory for the historical destruction of the city of Ebla.

This story is said to have parallels with Biblical texts, notably the Book of Deuteronomy.

## History

### Role

Teshub was seen as the king of the gods, the protector of humanity as well a destroying warrior, who was armed with rain, lightening, wind, thunder, and storm. As a weather god he was also important for the practice of agriculture and was said to control rivers as well.

### Worship

An important site of the worship of Teshub was Kummiya, located in modern Cilicia, Turkey, which was also later used by Assyrians as a place of worship for Adad, a Mesopotamian god of storms.

### Connection to other cultures

Teshub has been compared to several other Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern weather and thunder gods, such as Hadad from Syrian mythology, Zeus from Greek mythology, Baal from Semitic mythology and even Indra from Vedic mythology. The god is also closely connected to Tarḫunna, the Great Storm God from Hittite mythology, another ancient society in modern-days Turkey.

The Hurrian myth of succession is usually seen as a precursor to Greek succession myth Hesiod's Theogony, with Anu resembling Ouranos, the original king of the gods, Kumarbi resembling Cronus, the first usurper who castrated his predecessor, Teshub being equated to Zeus, the weather god who becomes the final king of the gods and Ullikummi to Typhon, the monster that challenges and loses against the final generation of gods.

## References

1. ↑  Trémouille, Marie Claude. *Teshub*
2. ↑  Trémouille, Marie Claude. *Teshub*
3. ↑  Wade, Jenny. *The Castrated Gods and their Castration Cults: Revenge, Punishment, and Spiritual Supremacy*
4. ↑  Wikander, Ola. *Ungrateful Grazers: A Parallel to Deut 32:15 from the Hurrian/Hittite Epic of Liberation*
5. ↑  Wikander, Ola. *Ungrateful Grazers: A Parallel to Deut 32:15 from the Hurrian/Hittite Epic of Liberation*
6. ↑  Trémouille, Marie Claude. *Teshub*
7. ↑  Trémouille, Marie Claude. *Teshub*
8. ↑  Trémouille, Marie Claude. *Teshub*
9. ↑  Miller, Robert D. *Tracking the Dragon across the Ancient Near East*
10. ↑ Taracha, Piotr. *The Storm-God and Hittite Great King*
11. ↑ Petrosyan, Armen. *The Cities of Kumme, Kummanna and their God Teššub / Teišeba*
12. ↑  Wade, Jenny. *The Castrated Gods and their Castration Cults: Revenge, Punishment, and Spiritual Supremacy*
13. ↑  Puhvel, Jaan. *Comparative Mythology*
14. ↑ Rutherford, Ian. *Hesiod and the Literary Traditions of the Near East*
15. ↑ Dietrich, B.C. *Some Eastern traditions in Greek thought*
16. ↑ Burkert, Walter. *Oriental and Greek mythology: the meeting of parallels*