Sun-goddess of the Earth
Also known as: Allani (Hurrian), Ereškigal (by equation), Lelwani (associated)
Mythological Narrative
The Hittite ruler of the underworld, the 'Dark Earth', identified with the Hurrian Allani and the Mesopotamian Ereškigal: the sun as it travels beneath the earth at night.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## The sun below
The Hittites imagined a sun deity of the underworld, the Sun-goddess of the Earth, who ruled the "Dark Earth" (dankui tekan) beneath the land of the living. The idea seems to be that the sun passes through the underworld at night; the goddess who governs that realm is its solar counterpart. In Hurrian texts she corresponds to Allani, the lady of the underworld, and god-lists equate her with the Mesopotamian Ereškigal.
## The realm where anger is locked away
The Dark Earth is where Hittite rituals sent evils they wanted gone for good. At the end of the Telipinu myth, the god's anger is sent down to the Dark Earth, where the doorkeeper opens seven doors and draws back seven bolts, and bronze vessels with lids of lead stand ready to hold whatever goes in, so that it never comes back up. The same realm houses the "Former Gods", the older generation of deities banished below, whom Ea consults in the Song of Ullikummi.
## In ritual rather than story
The Sun-goddess of the Earth appears mainly in purification rituals and in offerings for the dead rather than in narrative myth. This site includes her because the underworld she rules is essential to how Hittite myths end: problems are solved not by destroying them but by sending them down and sealing them in.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Sun-goddess of the Earth.
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