The name Tarḫunz is the Luwian form of a widely attested Anatolian storm‑god figure and is reconstructed as Proto‑Anatolian *Tṛḫu‑ent‑, a participle from the Proto‑Indo‑European root *terh2 meaning 'to cross over, pass through, overcome', yielding a sense of 'conquering'. In Luwian and neighboring traditions the weather god occupies the leading position among sky deities: he is invoked as a martial and political patron who 'rushes ahead of the king' to secure victory and who legitimates rulership (for example, royal invocations such as Muwatalli II's address calling him 'weather god of the thunderbolt, my lord, king of heaven'). Comparative evidence and onomastics tie Tarḫunz to Hittite Tarḫunna and Hurrian Teshub and place him within the broader Near Eastern storm‑god tradition.
Iconography from the Iron Age, notably the İvriz relief, portrays Tarhunz as a bearded, curly‑haired male wearing a helmet, a knee‑length skirt and belt; in the vineyard relief he holds a bunch of grapes in one hand and ears of wheat in the other. Epithets found in sources describe him as flashing and thunderous (Luwian epithets piḫaimiš 'flashing, shining' and piḫaššaššiš 'of the thunderbolt, of the flash'), and Iron Age depictions also show him in martial posture, wielding an axe and slaying enemies. He is presented as a shining, lightning‑wielding sky/warrior figure rather than an animal or chthonic monster.
Sources attribute control over thunder, lightning and rain to Tarhunz and emphasize both martial and fertility functions. He serves as a war patron who 'rushed ahead of the king, ensuring victory' (royal inscriptions invoke him for protection and kingship) and is represented in battle imagery slaying foes. Agricultural aspects are explicit in his vineyard cult ('Tarhunz of the vineyard'): offerings to him are said to produce abundance ('Plenty came down from the heavens and plenty came up from the earth'), and he is associated with grapes and grain. Ritual material also connects him to divine transport—horses and a chariot—that are maintained in rites (for example, the Arzawan ritual against horse‑plague prescribes feeding the weather god's horses and oiling his chariot with sheep fat). Mythically he belongs to the storm‑god vs. serpent motif (the Tarhunz/Tarḫunna figure confronts serpentine adversaries such as the Illuyanka in the Anatolian myth cycle).
*Perkʷūnos
*Perkʷūnos is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European thunder‑god hypothesized by comparative linguistics and mythology. Scholarly reconstructions portray him as a storm or thunder figure associated with fructifying rain and as the combatant who fights a multi‑headed water‑serpent to release life‑giving waters; no direct attestations from the Proto‑Indo‑European period survive and the figure is inferred from later Indo‑European traditions.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
57 Mnemosyne
57 Mnemosyne is a large main-belt asteroid (S-type) discovered in 1859 and named after the Greek Titaness Mnemosyne. It is a non-sentient astronomical body studied for its orbital and rotational properties and has been used in dynamical measurements related to Jupiter.
Abaddon
In Hebrew scripture Abaddon is primarily a noun meaning 'destruction' or a section/condition of the underworld paired with Sheol; in the New Testament Book of Revelation Abaddon is personified as an angelic figure (Greek Apollyon) described as the king of an army of locusts released from the abyss during the apocalypse.
Aban Yasht
The Aban Yasht is a hymn from the Persian tradition that praises Anahita, a goddess associated with water, fertility, and wisdom. It consists of 132 stanzas and is part of the 21 Yashts collection. (Note: - Power tier should be "Primordial" or possibly "Cosmic", given that it's a hymn of great spiritual significance and associated with a goddess. - The article incorrectly states that Anahita is associa)
Abath
No corroborated folkloric entity named "Abath" is documented in the provided sources. The string appears in the supplied material only as a surname/personal name in Aruban/Dutch-Caribbean archival records and as an unrelated taxonomic or encyclopedic hit; no mythic attributes, origin stories, rituals, or apotropaic practices for an entity called Abath are present in the documents reviewed.
Abatur
Abatur is an uthra (celestial emanation) in Mandaeism described as the 'father of the Uthras' and called the Ancient (ʿattīqā). He resides on the boundary between the World of Light and lower regions, functions as a judge who weighs souls (Abatur Muzania), and supplies instructions and materials to the demiurgic uthra Ptahil in accounts from the Diwan (Scroll) of Abatur.
Abatwa (Twa / Batwa)
Abatwa (also recorded as Twa, Batwa, Mutwa; singular forms Barhwa or Murhwa in some transcriptions) are indigenous hunter‑gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, historically identified as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. The available sources treat them as human ethnic groups whose livelihoods, lands, and populations have been severely affected by conservation policies and modern violence.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the foundational patriarchal ancestor in the Hebrew Bible whose life establishes a covenantal relationship between his family/people and God. He functions as an exemplar of faith, the progenitor of promised descendants, and a narrative anchor for claims of land, blessing, and communal identity in later religious traditions.
Abraun
Abraun is an attested name in German-language plant-legend scholarship (Der abraun, ein beitrag zur pflanzensagenkunde, 1916) and a short database entry (Wikidata) labels it as a spirit from German mythology. Surviving accessible documentation is extremely limited: the principal academic treatment is a 1916 contribution to pflanzensagenkunde (plant-saga studies), but the excerpts available here contain only bibliographic metadata and do not record tales, descriptions, or rituals.
Abtin
Abtin (Persian: آبتین), attested also as Athwya, is a mythic ancestral figure in Iranian tradition described in Avestan and later epic literature as one of a small set of formative human-like figures involved in preparing the corporeal world and as the father of the epic hero-king Fereydun in the Shahnama.
Community Record
- [1]Tarḫunz (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Tarḫunzwiki
- [2]Tarḫunz (Wikidata). Wikidata: Tarḫunzwiki
- [3]Luwian religion (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Luwian religion (Tarhunz entry)wiki
- [4]On Slaying Dragons - by Klaus - Simplify. Klaus Simplify: discussion of storm‑god vs serpent motif (Illuyanka parallels)other
- [5]Heroes of Chaos - Brogues Britannicus. Samuel Chapman: comparative summary of storm‑serpent mythsother
- [6]Fairy‑Tale Files: The Storytime Reptilian | Fairy Tale Review. Fairy Tale Review: comparative discussions of serpent‑slaying motifsother