The 12th Planet (10 page)

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. (Fig. 29)

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. (Fig. 30) It frequently appeared on round seals as part of a rocket-like object. (Fig. 31)

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. (Fig. 32)

Hittite texts, like later Greek legends, relate how their 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. (Fig. 33) 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.

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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 premortal 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).