Sun goddess of Arinna

It appears that in the northern cultural sphere of the early Hittites, there was no male solar deity.

The Sun goddess of Arinna and the weather god Tarḫunna formed a pair and together they occupied the highest position in the Hittite state's pantheon.

The land belonged to the two deities and they established the king, who would refer to the Sun goddess as "Mother".

[7] Several queens dedicated cultic solar discs to the Sun goddess in the city of Taḫurpa.

King Ulmi-Teššup of Tarḫuntašša donated a Sun disc of gold, silver and copper to the goddess each year, along with a bull and three sheep.

It is also believed that the golden deer statuettes from the Early Bronze Age, which were found in the middle of the Kızılırmak River and belong to the Hattian cultural period, ere associated with the cult of the Sun goddess.

[dubious – discuss][9] Earlier scholarship misunderstood Ištanu as the name of the male Sun god of the Heavens,[10] but more recent scholarship has held that the name is only used to refer to the Sun goddess of Arinna.

[11] Volkert Haas, however, still prefers to distinguish between a male Ištanu representing the day-star and a female Wurunšemu who is the Sun goddess of Arinna and spends her nights in the underworld.