The Storm Gods and the Power of Awesome

Throughout early civilization the worship of Gods was engrained in society. The most powerful of these entities was the storm god. In agricultural societies the weather dictates the prosperity and well being of the people and thus the storm god was by far the most significant and influential deity of the time. The Mesopotamians, Hittites and Greeks are three examples of cultures that possess dominant storm gods that ruled over the other gods and man. The gods are not always benevolent but they do maintain order in the universe and keep the forces of chaos from consuming the world. Due to the close proximity geographically of the three cultures (although at different times) there are shared aspects in each of their respective mythologies. The Enuma Elish is the Mesopotamian creation story and dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. A Hittite creation story has not yet been discovered but fragmented mythological texts have been. The Hittites immigrated to Anatolia in 1900 BC, at which time they adopted many local customs including cuneiform and parts of Mesopotamian literature. The Hittites had direct contact and blending with Mesopotamian myths. The Greeks however never had any direct contact with either civilization, rather oral traditions were passed on to the Mycenaeans, and later the Greeks, thus bridging the time gap between these civilizations. Storm gods are portrayed as all-powerful beings that put an end to chaos and protect the world from returning to its disordered state. In Greek mythology, the storm god Zeus is praised for not only his power but also his intelligence. In Work & Days, Hesiod states, “There’s just no way you can get around the mind of Zeus.” Marduk, the storm god of Mesopotamian myth is equally praised in the Hymn of 50 Names. The Hymn of 50 Names was an annual ritual created to celebrate and praise the power of Marduk. These stories were told as praises at festivals to Zeus and Marduk respectively, and for this reason they are specifically designed to honor each god. They are both characterized as all-powerful protectors of the forces of progress. Both gods have the ability to be wrathful as seen in the Greek myth of Pandora or in the Mesopotamian title for Marduk, Agaku; which is a title that carries the connotation of both wrath and love.
The Hittites are more objective in the telling of their myths. The stories are not told as praises but rather as didactic tales that the writer uses to teach with little in the way of embellishment. In the song of Ullikummi, when Teshub, the Hittite storm god, learns of the power and size of Ullikummi, it says, “[Teshub’s] tears flowed like streams… Who can behold the terrors of such a one any longer?” This displayed fear which is a strongly human emotion and indicates that even the “king of the gods” is capable of being afraid. Teshub is portrayed as not only the supremely powerful king of the gods and man but also as having human emotions, which ties him to the people who worship him. In all three cultures, the storm gods are considered the ruler of the heavens and to achieve this title they all had to defeat or dethrone either their parent or a threat to the established order. Common motifs in the myths of ancient cultures are battles between the storm god and horrible monsters that threaten the fate of order throughout the universe. The monsters in these stories are usually symbolic of a hardship commonly faced by the people such as a flooding river. The Mesopotamian storm god Marduk is asked to wage war against the goddess Tiamat and her vicious dragons and giant snakes. Marduk agrees to fight her but demands to be given honors from the other gods and named Ziukkinna, which translates to “the life of the gods, their leader and ruler.” He goes to battle and defeats Tiamat and her army and from her corpse creates the world and “Her waters he arranged so that they could not escape.” Tiamat, which means female