Teshub

In Hurrian mythic tradition (the Song of Emergence within the Kumarbi Cycle) Teshub's birth is framed as the outcome of the succession struggle among sky and older gods: Kumarbi bites off the genitals of the sky-god Anu, and from Kumarbi's body (in some formulations from his split skull) the younger storm-god Teshub is born and later contests kingship with Kumarbi and his allies.

Depictions of Teshub are relatively rare in the surviving record. When shown, he is typically an armed, bearded figure sometimes holding a bundle of lightning and occasionally depicted driving a chariot drawn by two sacred bulls (Šeri and Ḫurri); a notable iconographic example appears at Yazılıkaya.

Teshub controls winds, lightning, thunder and rain—these weather phenomena are described as his weapons—and thereby acts both as a destructive storm-power and as a fertility-bringing force who enables vegetation and creates rivers and springs. He serves as a supreme rulership figure among gods in narratives of divine kingship, repeatedly contesting and defending his authority against opponents (Kumarbi, the sea, and monsters such as Ḫedammu and Ullikummi). He is also described in sources as a protector of human beings.