Allanzu
Hurrian goddess, daughter of Ḫepat, youthful deity.
Allanzu, also known as Alasuwa in later periods, was a Hurrian goddess considered a daughter of Ḫepat. She was characterized as a youthful deity and frequently appears in texts alongside her mother and siblings. Her worship extended to the Hittites and Luwians.
Quick Facts
- Deity of
- "Young woman of Ḫepat"
- Other names
- Alasuwa
- Cult center
- Tabal
- Siblings
- Šarruma, Kunzišalli
- Parents
- Ḫepat and Teshub
Facts from the source article.
Character and associations with other deities
Allanzu was fundamentally understood as a youthful deity, often called the “young woman of Ḫepat.” The epithet šiduri is especially common for her. She was the daughter of Ḫepat and Teshub. Scholar Gary Beckman has suggested that, just as Teshub could replace the Hittite weather god Tarḫunna and Ḫepat could replace the Sun goddess of Arinna under Hurrian influence, the goddess Mezulla might have been linked to Allanzu in a similar way. In Hurrian religion, Allanzu and her mother formed a divine pair and received offerings together; such paired worship of related deities was common, as seen with Išḫara and Allani or Ninatta and Kulitta. Allanzu’s siblings were Šarruma and Kunzišalli. By the first millennium BCE, however, Allanzu and Šarruma were instead considered a couple, a change that may have come from the religion of Tabal. Besides the singular Allanzu, a pair of lesser versions called Allanzunni also appear, possibly regarded as her daughters. These reflect a regional tradition of minor hypostases, like Maliya’s Maliyanni or Šarruma’s Šarrumanni. Queen Puduḫepa’s prayer mentions “two Šarrummanni-s and one Alanzunni, you who from the womb of the god are sprung.”
Worship
Allanzu appears in Hurrian offering lists known as kaluti as part of the circle of the goddess Ḫepat, alongside her siblings Šarruma and Kunzišalli and other deities like Takitu, Nabarbi, Šuwala, Adamma, and Kubaba. She also features in a ritual text concerning the Hurrian religious concept of šarrena. In the Hittite Annals of Hattusili, she is listed with the storm gods of Adalaur and Aleppo and the goddesses Allatum and Lelluri, when the king names the deities he brought from Hassum to a temple of Mezulla in Hattusa, integrating them into Hittite religion. She was worshiped with Ḫepat in the Hittite city of Ankuwa, the cult center of Kataḫḫa. At the Yazılıkaya sanctuary, two figures shown with Ḫepat (reliefs 45 and 46) are thought to be Allanzu and Kunzišalli, and an inscription there calls the former the daughter of Teshub. The personal name Allanzu-Ḫeba from Emar may relate to the well-known pairing of Ḫepat and Allanzu. In the first millennium BCE, Luwians continued to worship her as Alasuwa, and records mention temples built in her honor.
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