TYPE: Patron goddess and mother goddess
ORIGIN: Hittite/Hurrian [Anatolia]
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: 2000 BCE or earlier until 1300 BCE or later.
SYNONYMS: possibly Hepatu; Hannahannas; Kubaba.
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Hattusas [Boghazkoy and Yazilikaya]; Arinna; other sanctuaries within the Hittite Empire extending down into the north Syrian plain.
ART REFERENCES: Seasl and seal impressions; sculptures; monumental rock carvings.
LITERARY SOURCES: Cunieform and hieroglyphic texts from Boghazkoy, etc.
INFORMATION:
Hebat was adopted from the Hurrian pantheon as the principal goddess of state religion in the Hittite Empire, though because of name changes her precise role is not always clear. She is described as the "Great goddess". In some texts she is also the "sun goddess of Arinna" (a religious center near Boghazkoy thus far lost to archeology) but her relationship to the sun god, in one fragmentary text called Kumarbi and describes as the king of the gods, god of right and justice, is unclear. She is more intimately linked with the weather god Tesub, "King of heaven, lord of the land of Hatti" and god of battle who, according to the same legend, displaced Kumarbi as king of the gods.
Hebat is often drawn as a matronly figure, without weapons, but generally in company with a lion. In a famous procession of gods carved on rock faces at Yazilikaya, the leading goddess is called Hepatu.
NOTE: these sanctuaries were often created where vertical rock facades suitable for carving relief sculptures existed near water.