SUN GODDESS CULT OF ARINNA IN HITTITE EMPIRE

The cult of Sun is a system, where religious respect & loyalty is displayed for the sun, which is accepted as a sacred figure. Comparative myth analyses and ethnological studies suggest that the cult of sun, widely seen in Ancient Age civilizations, is not a worshipping of the general public unlike other cults, but rather it is the worshipping of a chosen minority, only. In societies dominated with this cult, a generational and genealogical relation is constituted between the sun itself and the people in the class representing the managing power, and the sun is smybolized as the healing and abundance. It is possible to see this situation in Hittite Empire, as well. The Sun Goddess of Arinna, sitting in the throne of Hittite Pantheon is the protector of the King and Queen, a guiding light, creator of the human kind, fertilizer and a healing god. In this study, the Sun Goddess of Arinna, as the Chief Goddess of Hittite Empire, reigning Anatolia for two thousand years B.C., is discussed as a figure of sun cul