The third (front) group of twelve is clearly made up of the more important male and female deities. Their weapons and emblems are more varied; four have the divine celestial symbol above them; two are winged. This group also includes nondivine participants: two bulls holding up a globe, and the king of the Hittites, wearing a skull cap and standing under the emblem of the Winged Disk.
Marching in from the right were two groups of female deities; the rock carvings are, however, too mutilated to ascertain their full original number. We will probably not be wrong in assuming that they, too, made up two "companies" of twelve each. The two processions from the left and from the right met at a central panel which clearly depicted Great Gods, for they were all shown elevated, standing atop mountains, animals, birds, or even on the shoulders of divine attendants. Much effort was invested by scholars (for example, E. Laroche, Le Pantheon de Yazilikaya) to determine from the depictions, the hieroglyphic symbols, as well as from partly legible texts and god names that were actually carved on the rocks, the names, titles, and roles of the deities included in the procession. But it is clear that the Hittite pantheon, too, was governed by the "Olympian" twelve. The lesser gods were organized in groups of twelve, and the Great Gods on Earth were associated with twelve celestial bodies.
That the pantheon was governed by the "sacred number" twelve is made additionally certain by yet another Hittite monument, a masonry shrine found near the present-day Beit-Zehir. It clearly depicts the divine couple, surrounded by ten other gods - making a total of twelve.
The archaeological finds showed conclusively that the Hittites worshiped gods that were "of Heaven and Earth," all interrelated and arranged into a genealogical hierarchy. Some were great and "olden" gods who were originally of the heavens. Their symbol - which in the Hittite pictographic writing meant "divine" or "heavenly god" - looked like a pair of eye goggles. It frequently appeared on round seals as part of a rocket-like object.
Other gods were actually present, not merely on Earth but among the Hittites, acting as supreme rulers of the land, appointing the human kings, and instructing the latter in matters of war, treaties, and other international affairs.
Heading the physically present Hittite gods was a deity named Teshub, which meant "wind blower." He was thus what scholars call a Storm God, associated with winds, thunder, and lightning. He was also nicknamed Taru ("bull"). Like the Greeks, the Hittites depicted bull worship; like Jupiter after him, Teshub was depicted as the God of Thunder and Lightning, mounted upon a bull.
Hittite texts, like later Greek legends, relate how then-chief deity had to battle a monster to consolidate his supremacy. A text named by the scholars "The Myth of the Slaying of the Dragon" identifies Teshub's adversary as the god Yanka. Failing to defeat him in battle, Teshub appealed to the other gods for help, but only one goddess came to his assistance, and disposed of Yanka by getting him drunk at a party.
Recognizing in such tales the origins of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, scholars refer to the adversary smitten by the "good" god as "the dragon." But the fact is that Yanka meant "serpent," and that the ancient peoples depicted the "evil" god as such - as seen in this bas-relief from a Hittite site. Zeus, too, as we have shown, battled not a "dragon" but a serpent-god. As we shall show later on, there was deep meaning attached to these ancient traditions of a struggle between a god of winds and a serpent deity. Here, however, we can only stress that battles among the gods for the divine Kingship were reported in the ancient texts as events that had unquestionably taken place.
A long and well-preserved Hittite epic tale, entitled "Kingship in Heaven," deals with this very subject - the heavenly origin of the
gods. The recounter of those pre-mortal events first called upon twelve "mighty olden gods" to listen to his tale, and be
witnesses to its accuracy:
Let there listen the gods who are in Heaven,
And those who are upon the dark-hued Earth!
Let there listen, the mighty olden gods.
Thus establishing that the gods of old were both of Heaven and upon Earth, the epic lists the twelve "mighty olden ones," the
forebears of the gods; and assuring their attention, the recounter proceeded to tell how the god who was "king in Heaven" came to "dark-hued Earth":
Formerly, in the olden days, Alalu was king in Heaven;
He, Alalu, was seated on the throne.
Mighty Anu, the first among the gods, stood before him,
Bowed at his feet, set the drinking cup in his hand.
For nine counted periods, Alalu was king in Heaven.
In the ninth period, Anu gave battle against Alalu.
Alalu was defeated, he fled before Anu -
He descended to the dark-hued Earth.
Down to the dark-hued Earth he went;
On the throne sat Anu.
The epic thus attributed the arrival of a "king in Heaven" upon Earth to a usurpation of the throne: A god named Alalu was forcefully deposed from his throne (somewhere in the heavens), and, fleeing for his life, "descended to dark-hued Earth." But that was not the end. The text proceeded to recount how Anu, in turn, was also deposed by a god named Kumarbi (Anu's own brother, by some interpretations).
There is no doubt that this epic, written a thousand years before the Greek legends were composed, was the forerunner of the
tale of the deposing of Uranus by Cronus and of Cronus by Zeus. Even the detail pertaining to the castration of Cronus by Zeus
is found in the Hittite text, for that was exactly what Kumarbi did to Anu:
For nine counted periods Anu was king in Heaven;
In the ninth period, Anu had to do battle with Kumarbi.
Anu slipped out of Kumarbi's hold and fled -
Flee did Anu, rising up to the sky.
After him Kumarbi rushed, seized him by his feet;
He pulled him down from the skies.
He bit his loins; and the "Manhood" of Anu
with the insides of Kumarbi combined, fused as bronze.
According to this ancient tale, the battle did not result in a total victory. Though emasculated, Anu managed to fly back to his Heavenly Abode, leaving Kumarbi in control of Earth. Meanwhile, Anu's "Manhood" produced several deities within Kumarbi's insides, which he (like Cronus in the Greek legends) was forced to release. One of these was Teshub, the chief Hittite deity. However, there was to be one more epic battle before Teshub could rule in peace.
Learning of the appearance of an heir to Anu in Kummiya ("heavenly abode"), Kumarbi devised a plan to "raise a rival to the God of Storms." "Into his hand he took his staff; upon his feet he put the shoes that are swift as winds"; and he went from his city Ur-Kish to the abode of the Lady of the Great Mountain. Reaching her,
His desire was aroused; He slept with Lady Mountain; His manhood flowed into her. Five times he took her. . . . Ten times he took her.
Was Kumarbi simply lustful? We have reason to believe that much more was involved. Our guess would be that the succession
rules of the gods were such that a son of Kumarbi by the Lady of the Great Mountain could have claimed to be the rightful heir to
the Heavenly Throne; and that Kumarbi "took" the goddess five and ten times in order to make sure that she conceived, as
indeed she did: she bore a son, whom Kumarbi symbolically named Ulli-Kummi ("suppressor of Kummiya" - Teshub's abode).
The battle for succession was foreseen by Kumarbi as one that would entail fighting in the heavens. Having destined his son to
suppress the incumbents at Kummiya, Kumarbi further proclaimed for his son: