Examining the Hittites: Faith, Deities and Cultural Impact

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Religion has a large place among humans, in self-healing through to political debates, and has existed since man began to think. Humans have always had faith that some divine force is guiding them through their everyday rituals and tasks to lead a better life, and every religion has its differences. The Hittites were not discreet about their beliefs; there are some who may even say that the Hittites were unrestrained in their religious practices. Wherever you stand on it, you cannot deny that Hattic religion and their thousand gods played a large role in the lives of their people. For one example, their surplus of gods would have had a large impact on how and where they practiced their faith, and their extreme polytheism would have altered their acceptance of other cultures. This paper examines the religion of the Hittites, the role of this faith, and where the divine entities and temples fit in within their religion.

The faiths of the Hittites are hollow if you do not understand first who the Hittites are. In the near west during the Bronze Age many civilisations thrived, including the Syrians, Persians, …show more content…

They believed that gods inhabited the realms above and below the earth and that these gods were living entities and not just abstractions. Even substances such as fire and silver were considered to hold life and human emotion. They practiced what is referred to as the extreme form of polytheism by the time of the New Kingdom. Local Hattic deities were predominant, but the Hittites expanded their politics and military and this resulted in the swelling of their divine ranks with many gods taken from conquered city-states. The Hittites showed high levels of respect to the gods

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