Inara

The goddess of the first Illuyanka tale

Inara is a Hattian protective goddess associated with wild animals, known above all from the first version of the Illuyanka story. After the Storm-god is beaten by the serpent, Inara prepares a feast with vessels of wine and other drinks, and goes to the town of Zigaratta, where she meets a mortal man, Hupašiya. He agrees to help on condition that he may sleep with her; she agrees, hides him near the feast, and lures the serpent and its children out. When they have eaten and drunk so much that they cannot fit back into their hole, Hupašiya ties them up with a rope and the Storm-god kills them.

The house on the cliff

The sequel is strange and only partly preserved. Inara builds a house on a cliff in the land of Tarukka and installs Hupašiya there, forbidding him to look out of the window while she is away. He disobeys, sees his wife and children, and begs to go home. At this point the tablet breaks; most scholars infer that Inara punished him, but the text does not say so, and this site does not supply an ending.

A protective deity

Outside this story, Inara belongs to a group of Hittite protective deities of the countryside, sometimes linked with the stag god of the wild. Her role in the myth, turning the Storm-god's defeat into victory through planning rather than force, is characteristic of the Anatolian tales, in which the storm-god rarely wins alone.