Dark Gods (Anatolian)

The Dark Gods or Dark Ones, also known as the Heptad, were a group of malevolent deities from the religions of the ancient Anatolian peoples.

The Dark Ones
This group of deities was known in Luwian as DINGIRMEŠ Marwāinzi and ᴰMarwayanza, and in Hittite as ᴰMarkuwayaš , all meaning lit. 'the Dark Ones'.

The Heptad
The Dark Gods were also referred to in Hittite as ᴰŠēpittaš ( and ), that is the Heptad. ᴰŠēpittaš was a loanword from the Akkadian ilū sebitti, meaning lit. 'seven gods', due to its similarity for the Proto-Indo-European term for this number, *.

In the ritual text KUB 59.26, this group of gods was referred to as "the Dark Heptad".

History
The Dark Gods and the plague-god Iyarri to whom they were associated might have originated from the Babylonian Erra and the Sebitti who accompanied him, with whom they were identical.

Despite their foreign origin, the Dark Gods and Iyarri had cult places primarily in Central Anatolia and the regions inhabited by Luwians, and Iyarri appeared in Anatolian theophoric names, thus attesting that the people who gave these names saw these deities as being part of their own culture, thus showing that they had become firmly rooted in the Hittite and Luwian religions and had not been transmitted to the Anatolian peoples through the intermediary of Hurrian religion.

Attestations
The Dark Gods are attested in the Hittite Empire, where they featured as assistants of the god Iyarri.

The Dark Gods were also mentioned in the rituals of Malli and Uḫḫamuwa from Arzawa.

The Heptad was also present in the religion of the Hurrian populations of Kizzuwatna:
 * one ritual text mentioning them as part of the entourage of the gods Teššub, Šarruma and Tēnu, and where they were referred to as the "male gods of Šarruma" ;
 * another text mentioned a Heptad of Ištar ;
 * one text describing offerings of birds and breads mentioned the Heptad and the Hurrian god Ḫašulatḫi;
 * one text reflecting cross-influences between Hittite and Hurrian cults mentioned the Heptad together with the Tutelary God of Tauriša;
 * two fragmentary texts possibly recording a Syro-Hurrian myth mentioned "the daughter of the Heptad".

Nature
The name "the Dark Ones" not only assigned an awe-inspiring appearance to this group of deities, but also ascribed to them a negative role. This is also visible in how one text referred to them as the "terrifying Heptad" and another text called them the "evil Heptad".

The Dark Gods were conceived as consisting of 14 male deities, hence why their name was written in cuneiform using the Sumerogram ᴰIMIN.IMIN.BI, where the duplication of the cuneiform sign for the number 7 represented a double Heptad.

Function
As suggested by their collective name, the Dark Gods were considered to have a malevolent nature, which is also attested through their function in the Uḫḫamuwa ritual from Arzawa, where they represented pernicious forces.

In the text KUB 17.16 I, describing a ritual to be performed when humans, cattle and sheep are dying frightfully, several gods are invoked while the Dark Gods are considered to be responsible for the plague.

Association with other deities
During the Hittite Empire, the Dark Gods were associated with the god Iyarri who, like the Greek Apollo, shot his arrows at those he hates. In the Dandanku ritual, meant to prevent the plague in an army by convincing Iyarri to attack enemy countries instead of the Land of Ḫatti, the Heptad were his assistants as the Dark Gods of Iyarri.

The Dark Gods were not only associated with deities having negative roles, and in the ritual text KBo 34.48 they were associated with the Tutelary God of the Hunting Bag to eliminate evil, although these deities had different roles, since the performers of the ritual sought, during it, to obtain favour from the Tutelary God of the Hunting Bag but to keep the Dark Gods, referred to in the text as the "terrifying Heptad" (, ḫadugaēs ᴰŠepittaeš), at bay.

In the ritual text Vs. I 16, the Dark Gods were associated with several solar deities, including the Sun, the Sun deity of the Ominous Signs, and the Sun goddess of the Earth, while the Dark Gods themselves appeared as the Heptad of the Sun.

A Heptad of Tarḫunna also appears in a list structured like a kaluti- of the Hurrian tradition of Kizzuwatna, which itself describes a late ritual connected to the Hattian myth of the Moon falling from Heaven out of fear of the thunder, lightning and rains of the storm-god. The Heptad also appears in the AN.TAḪ.ŠUMSAR festival, where the Anatolian god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teššub merge with each other, and during which offerings are given to the cart, weapons, thunder, clouds, dew, rains, father-gods, and vizier of Teššub, as well as to the pastistilas Heptad.

During the 8th century BCE, the Dark Gods were associated with the war-god Sanda, who was himself similar to Iyarri.

Priests
According to records of a festival celebrated by a prince in relation to the restoration of cults in the region of Nerik, a priest of the Dark Gods officiated in a temple of his god. The festival itself involved favourable deities, such as Tarḫunna, Telepinus, Kattaḫḫa, Ḫalki and Ḫasammili, and during it the priests of the Dark Gods, of Telepinus and of Kattaḫḫa acted together.