Telipinu is an agricultural deity who gets angry and leaves the home of the Gods. The effects are devastating. Telipinu is the son of weather god Tarhunna, the chief god of the Hittite pantheon, and the Sun Goddess of Arinna. In the Hatti language his name means Exalted Son.
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While it's usually his father Tarhunna who brings the rains and storms Telepinu also has some control of the weather. He can influence fair winds and ease the force of the falling rain.
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Every nine years Telipinu is given a major festival in autumn, especially at the cities of Ḫanḫana and Kašḫa. A thousand sheep and 50 oxen are sacrificed to the God. The symbol of Telipinu, an oak tree, is replanted.
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Telipinu is one of the deities ritually invoked in a daily prayer for King Muršili II during the reign of the monarch (c. 1330 - 1295 BCE). The wife of Telipinu, Ḫatepuna, is a goddess of Hatti. She's also adopted into Hittite and Kaskian pantheons.
The best known story of Telipinu is about the day he loses his temper. Wrathful, he stalks out of the home of the Gods and disappears.
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The Telipinu Myth tells of the effects.
"Mist seized the windows. Smoke seized the house. On the hearth the logs were stifled. On the altars the gods were stifled. In the fold the sheep were stifled. In the corral the cows were stifled. The sheep refused her lamb. The cow refused her calf.
Telipinu went off and took away grain, the fertility of the herds, growth, plenty, and satiety into the wilderness, to the meadow and the moor... Humans and gods perish from hunger."
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The Gods are concerned. Inar asks his wild animals but none have seen Telipinu. Tarhunna calls Telipinu with a mighty voice like the crack and howl of thunder, but he doesn't respond. Inanna searches for him with her copper mirror, to no avail.
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The Gods beg the mother goddess Hannahanna to help before the world explodes. Human weapons clang in battle as tribes fight over territory and plunder, always in search of non-existent stores of grain or salt meat.
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People abandon their gods. No one sweeps the temple steps or prepares meals for the Gods. No one bathes them in fragrant oils and flower petals, or dresses them in finery. No one does the work needed to show reverence to the gods.
Driven from their territories by famine and crop failure, people crowd the cities. Disease breaks out and there is no work. "The Gods have abandoned us," the people cry. "Our own city gods won't protect us."
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Hannahanna calls a magical bee, and sends her out to find Telipinu. The little bee locates the God sulking in a glen. She buzzes in his ear, and he waves her away. The bee stings him and smears beeswax all over him.
Telipinu jumps up in a rage. He smashes a mountain with his fist. Great cracks open in the earth. Screams of mortals can be heard in the godly realm. Telipinu stalks around smashing everything he sees.
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Then Kamrušepa, the goddess of magic, begins to work her spells. She sends Telipinu's anger to the gate keeper of the Underworld. Telipinu calms down. He returns home with humble mien to repair all the damage he caused.
In an alternate ending, a temple priest captures the God's anger in bronze casks. He sends them to the Underworld, from which nothing can escape.
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When Telipinu returns, the lands flourish once more. Seedlings sprout, crops grow and the sheep have milk for three.
In another myth, Hannahanna becomes angry and must cast her rage into Underworld. This she does, and is joyful thereafter.
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