Huwasi stone

In Hittite mythology, a huwasi (meaning "standing stone") is a ritual standing stone to a deity usually situated in a temple.^[1] Huwasi are sometimes identified as examples of baetyls.^[2]

Larger huwasi stones were placed in an open area surrounded by trees and other plants. The stones were treated as gods and were given food and water and anointed and washed.

At any cult centre, the deities that could not be given a temple were worshipped at huwasi stones. The term huwasi was used to describe the housing of the sacred stela, the huwasi stone.^[3][4]

Gary Beckman speculated that worship of the huwasi may be related to passages in the Song of Emergence (CTH 344) where the god Ea declares that a stone which Kumarbi bit into while trying to devour his son, the Storm-god, will become an object for which sacrifices and offerings will be made.^[5]

References

Citations

1. Laneri 2024, p. 180.
2. Marinatos 2010, p. 87.
3. Bryce, Trevor (2002). Life and Society in the Hittite World. Oxford University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-19-924170-5.
4. Becchio, Bruno; Schadé, Johannes P. (2006). Encyclopedia of World Religions. Foreign Media Group. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-60136-000-7.
5. • Beckman, Gary (2011). "Primordial Obstetrics. "The Song of Emergence" (CTH 344)". Hethitische Literatur: Überlieferungsprozesse, Textstrukturen, Ausdrucksformen und Nachwirken: Akten des Symposiums vom 18. bis 20. Februar 2010 in Bonn. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86835-063-0. OCLC 768810899.

Sources

• Laneri, Nicola (2024). From Ritual to God in the Ancient Near East: Tracing the Origins of Religion. Cambridge University Press.
• Marinatos, Nanno (2010). Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine. University of Illinois Press.

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