Since John's busy all weekend, it's time for another Storytime Vlog! This time it's for the not quite as detailed but never less interesting myths of the Hittites, who are way more interesting than anyone gives them credit for.
Question: I really loved the Maya storytime vlog that you guys did, and I was wondering if you guys could do another one with Hittite myths? It seems unlikely that they'll be voted up any time soon, and I was really interested in finding out some more about them.
Playing fast and loose with Hittite versus Hurrian terminology here, by the way, but I trust you'll all forgive me.
are the hittites the direct decendants of the sumerians? I'm asking because it says heshub's grand father is Anu.
ReplyDeleteThey're their own ethnic group, actually, not just offshoots of the Mesopotamians; from what we can tell, it looks like they probably migrated from somewhere in the northeastern Slavic/Scythian area and then sat down on the Turkish peninsula, bringing their native ideas to overwrite and share the local Mediterranean ones. There were, however, Mesopotamian enclaves from the Assyrians within their territory and they borrowed their cuneiform, so there was probably some cultural sharing between the two. They don't share a religion, but just like any nearby peoples, they have a little overlap around the edges.
Delete"Anu" is just the Assyrian word for "heavens" or "sky", which is why it's used for the original sky-god of their religion. The Hittites used the same cuneiform symbol, but it's likely that they either just borrowed the word to describe the original sky father without meaning he was the same guy, or even used the same symbol to write the name of a different god.
For Scion's purposes, you could say Anu, as one of the oldest gods in existence, was the father of both pantheons but that they split off, kind of like the Welsh and Irish pantheons splitting off from Danu. But you don't have to; they could easily be totally separate, since they're distinctly different cultures.
I'm looking for something interesting for my Scion of Oko to do with his Animal (Bee) purview, and homing bees seem like they could be an interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a great option for some Birthright creatures, maybe?
DeleteYou're welcome! :D
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, Damn! Homing bees and an entire pantheon in the clutches of a Titanrealm of Getting Lost!
Now that's two (the Finns being the others) awesome pantheons I want that are not seeing the light of day any time soon!
Hey, I didn't think the Maya would be happening any time soon, but they're in progress right now!
DeleteThe problem is that there are too many awesome pantheons and not enough time to write them all!
I like my pantheons the way I like my women... covered in BEES!
ReplyDeleteYou must have really epic dates.
DeleteI love them too. I even started a work up of them at one point for a Scion on the "opposition team" for my Army/Iraq Scion game.
ReplyDeleteToo awesome! We need more Hittite love around here. And everywhere else.
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