Kamrushepa: Hittite Goddess of Magic
- Sylvia Rose
- Jan 25, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 27
Kamrushepa (Kamrušepa) is a Luwian and Hittite goddess of medicine and magic. She's the wife of Sun God Tiwaz and plays an important part in the popular myth of Telipinu.
The major cult center of Kamrushepa is Kanesh (Kültepe), a prosperous trading town about the middle of today's Turkey. She's also worshipped at other Anatolian sites such as Taniwanda in northern Anatolia. Her symbol is an iron throne.
On god lists at her sites of worship she's presented as wife of the Luwian Sun God, Tiwaz (Tiwad). Kamrushepa goes out in her chariot pulled by fiery steeds, the symbol of Tiwaz as well as Pirwa the warrior horse god.
Besides the Sun God, she's affiliated with Pirwa and related deities such as Ḫaššušara, Hashamili the smith god and Maliya the deified river garden goddess. Later she becomes associated with Shaushka, the Great Goddess.
Her Hattian equivalent is Kataḫzipuri, goddess of magic revered by the Hattians, Hittites and Palaians. While seen as a benevolent medicine Goddess, Kataḫzipuri may have a mean streak.
In the Mesopotamian lands the equivalent of Kamrushepa is Sumerian medicine goddess Gula. Over time Gula becomes the most-worshipped deity in Mesopotamia, after Inanna.
Most female deities in the ancient world are associated with childbirth, even war goddesses such as Egyptian Sekhmet. Kamrušepa also bears the title of divine midwife.
She can be invoked together with other medicine goddesses to ease the pain of labor and protect the pregnant or birthing mother. Women wear or hold figurines of birth goddesses, or their symbols.
She watches over nursing mothers, infants and babies. Her magic protects against hostile supernatural forces waiting in the shadows to snatch the lives of mothers in childbirth or their newborns.
Unlike other goddesses associated with magic, who dwell in the Underworld, Kamrushepa lives in the heavens with the astral gods. Her name means 'spirit of the clouds' or 'spirit of smoke'.
In Luwian religion Kamrušepa belongs to a primary group of gods. The Luwian religion has no distinct structural pantheon, although Tarhunt the Storm God takes the traditional place as leader.
Besides Kamrushepa, the group is composed of:
Tiwad - Luwian Sun God
Maliya - deified river, garden and artisan goddess
Arma - Hittite & Luwian Moon God
Iyarri - God of Plague and War - an archer whose arrows inflict disease
Santa (Šanta), a warrior deity associated with plagues
... and various tutelary gods represented by the logogram LAMMA. Kamrušepa is especially well attested in Luwian incantations from Kizzuwatna.
In 1274 BCE, Hittite Queen Puduhepa is a priestess in Kizzuwatna when she meets her future husband Hattusili III, also the future king of the Hittites. One of her many achievements is the listing and categorization of the thousands of Hittite gods.
Kamrušepa appears in several Hittite myths. In the myth of Telipinu, when Telipinu goes off in a fit of anger and the earth begins to die, she instructs the other gods how to bring him back with magic.
In part of the ritual, an offering of twelve sheep is taken from the herds of the Sun God, which are tended by smith god Hashamili. One of Hashamili's aspects is as a protector deity.
The sheep are brought to Ḫapantali, a Luwian pastoral shepherd goddess. A similar formula comes from a disappearance myth of the storm god. Another text fragment describes Kamrušepa and the Sun God arguing until they calm down by combing sheep together.
After the late Bronze Age Kamrushepa disappears from the public eye. No mention of her is found past the first millennium BCE.
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