Arinna

Arinna refers to both an ancient city in the Hittite heartland of central Anatolia and the Sun Goddess of Arinna, the principal deity associated with that cult. In Hittite religion, the city and its goddess are closely linked, with the temple of the Sun Goddess at Arinna playing an important religious and ceremonial role in the early kingdom.

The city of Arinna was a major religious center in the central Anatolian region during the early and middle phases of the Hittite state. It is known from cuneiform texts and royal inscriptions that Arinna housed a prominent temple complex devoted to the Sun Goddess of Arinna, and the site figures in religious and political life of the period. The precise archaeological location of Arinna is a matter of scholarly discussion, and while multiple sites have been proposed, the historical significance of the city as a religious capital in the Hittite sphere is clear.

The Sun Goddess of Arinna is one of the chief deities in the Hittite pantheon. She is described as a solar divine figure and is embedded in royal ideology, treaties, and prayers. In some sources she is identified as the spouse or counterpart to the Weather God of Hatti, though her prominence persists beyond any single divine pairing. Her cult persisted alongside other major deities and influenced later Anatolian religious traditions, contributing to the broader understanding of Hittite ritual and state religion.

Scholars continue to study Arinna to clarify the city’s exact site and to better understand the goddess’s evolving role within the Hittite tradition and its afterlives in Neo-Hittite contexts.