Allani reigns over the Land of the Dead or Underworld in Hurrian myth. She's influenced by the Hittite Sun Goddess of the Earth, Underworld Goddess Lelwani and Mesopotamian Ereshkigal, Goddess of Death and the Night. Allani dwells in a great palace in the Dark Earth.
In the Land of Death the fate of humans is pre-decided. Allani is one of the deities who can determine fate. She's called negri ešeniwe or the bolt of earth, relating to the Underworld. She's associated with fate goddesses Hutena and Hutellura, also known as divine midwives.
Allani receives the title šiduri or young woman, and is considered a maiden or woman of youthful age. She wears a blue garment. In this context blue is associated with death. She's unmarried although one or two children are attested to her.
Among her many functions, Allani rules domains occupied by the Hurrian primeval deities. The deities dwell in the Underworld, where they're confined by Storm God Teshub.
Teshub is the son of Kumarbi, Lord of the Hurrian Underworld, and Anu the Sky Father. Allani and Kumarbi have no specific relationship or kinship.
Allani becomes cognate with Lelwani, Queen of the Old Gods in Hittite mythology. The Sun Goddess of Earth, the chthonic aspect of the Sun Goddess of Arinna, also holds court in the Underworld.
Sometimes Allani is invoked with Ishara, another Hurrian Underworld Goddess. While her origins are obscure, Ishara has influence from her main center of worship in northern Syria (Ebla) through Mesopotamia.
In the ritual of Allaituraḫi, Ishara and Allani are invoked together to protect a household from demonic forces. Ishara is connected to death but also love, erotic love and sexual love.
In Mesopotamia her love aspect prevails. Pairing her with a death goddess represents the dual aspect of nature and primordial depths of opposites in attraction.
Love and death are powerful and mystic. Humans can't control either feelings of love or the destiny of death.
Allani and Ishara, both associated with the Underworld, are a natural duo. Effigies in rituals and processions show them as twins or a pair, and dress them in clothes of red (Ishara) and blue (Allani). The two goddesses can receive an offering together as one.
The veneration of Ishara and Allani as a pair is part of a broader occurrence often seen in Hurrian and other Bronze Age sources. Twins, pairs, dyads, duos and diptychs are a recurring theme.
They include Shaushka's two attendants and the Divine Bulls of Teshub. Sacred dyads cross cultures with the Divine Twins of Proto-Indo-European mythology, and Manu and Yemo in the creation myth.
Allani is worshipped in ancient Ugarit, a metropolitan trade hub of coastal Syria, along with several other Hurrian deities. She's equated with Ugaritic underworld goddess Asray.
In the ancient Anatolian kingdom of Kizzuwatna, Allani is equated with the Sun Goddess of the Earth. Kizzuwatna is best known as the birthplace of the Hittite Queen, Puduḫepa.
Reigning in the 13th century BCE alongside her husband Hattusili III, she's among the most influential women in ancient history. Peace between Hittites and Egyptians is only one of her accomplishments.
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