The Hittites Serve their Gods

In the universe of the Hittites, humans had but a single duty—to serve their deities by providing them with sustenance, praise, and entertainment. This responsibility was organized by the king (T/Labarna), who functioned as both the overseer of his subjects and their representative before their divi...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Oxford handbook of ritual and worship in the Hebrew Bible
Main Author: Beckman, Gary M. 1948- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Oxford University Press 2020
In: The Oxford handbook of ritual and worship in the Hebrew Bible
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:In the universe of the Hittites, humans had but a single duty—to serve their deities by providing them with sustenance, praise, and entertainment. This responsibility was organized by the king (T/Labarna), who functioned as both the overseer of his subjects and their representative before their divine masters. On the one hand, in return for their loyal support, the men and women of Hatti received from their gods the boons of agricultural and pastoral plenty, victory in battle, and long years and good health. On the other hand, negligence in regard to the pantheon could result in chastisement in the form of drought, plague, barrenness, military defeat, etc. The cuneiform archives recovered from the Hittite capital and increasingly from provincial cities were compiled precisely to facilitate the supervision by the monarch and his entourage of the performance of the duties of the human community. Most numerous among these texts are programs for the ceremonies of the regular state cult, whose contents provide a detailed picture of the attention required by and accorded to the gods and goddesses of the Hittites.
ISBN:0190944935
Contains:Enthalten in: The Oxford handbook of ritual and worship in the Hebrew Bible
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.013.2