Telipinu

The god who goes missing

Telipinu is a Hattian deity of agriculture and growth, called in the myth the son of the Storm-god. He is best known from the Disappearance of Telipinu (CTH 324), one of several Hittite "vanishing god" texts in which a deity leaves in anger and the world begins to die. The same pattern is told of the Storm-god, the Sun-god, the mother goddess Hannahanna, and others; Telipinu's version is simply the best preserved.

A myth inside a ritual

The Telipinu text is not a free-standing story but the narrative part of a ritual: it tells why the god left, then gives the words and actions that will bring him back and bind his anger in the underworld. Its closing image, an evergreen eya tree set up before Telipinu with a hunting bag of sheep's fleece hanging from it, holding fat, grain, wine, cattle, sheep, long life, and offspring, reflects actual cult practice.

Why his anger matters

The text never fully explains what enraged Telipinu. What it describes in detail is the result: mist and smoke fill houses, the fire dies on the hearth, gods and animals and people all cease to thrive, and barley and wheat stop growing. The myth models how the Hittites understood blight and famine, as the withdrawal of a god whose presence makes life possible, and how ritual could restore the relationship.