Maliya
It is assumed that a similarly named goddess attested in Lycian texts from the first millennium BCE corresponds to earlier Hittite Maliya.
The Lycian and Lydian forms of Maliya were regarded as analogous to Greek Athena,[1] though it remains a matter of debate among researchers how was the correspondence between them initially established.
Malis also survived in Greek sources as the name of one of the naiads responsible for kidnapping Hylas, or alternatively as a slave of queen Omphale.
[10] Calvert Watkins proposes connecting her name with the noun māl-, "inner strength" or "mental force", attested both in Hittite and Luwian.
[15] An inventory tablet (KUB 38.33; line 5 on the obverse) mentions an iron statue of Maliya, described as a female river deity.
[19] An offering list from the reign of Tudḫaliya IV mentions a mountain deity named Maliya as well, possibly to be identified with Malimaliya known from other Hittite texts.
[22] A community of leather workers and tanners dedicated to her lived close to a stream located in the proximity of the ašuša gate of Hattusa.
[23] The text IBoT 3.1 mentions a high ranking leatherworker offering a type of vessel used to store perfume (talla/i-) during a drinking rite of Maliya performed in front of the royal couple.
[27] In the oldest sources from Hattusa, Maliya's cult seemingly had a domestic character, but she also appears in the context of royal rituals after the rise of the Hittite Empire.
[16] She is mentioned for example in a text pertaining to a festival meant to secure good fortune for the house of a ruler and to guarantee him an heir[28] and a prayer in which she is invoked alongside the Weather god of Nerik to help suffering petitioners.
[16] She appears in Luwian context in sources from the basin of Zuliya (modern Çekerek River), though individual place names related to her are not preserved in most known documents.
[39] She is also present in an enumeration of deities of an unknown presumably Luwian city known from a Hittite offering list from the beginning of the imperial period.
[42] In the texts from the reign of Puduḫepa which describe the annual ḫišuwa festival meant to guarantee the well being of the royal family, Maliya is listed alongside other deities of Kummiya: "Teshub Manuzi", Lelluri, Išḫara, Allani and a pair of manifestations of Nupatik.
[43] Maliya is mentioned in the end of the tablet dealing with the second day,[44] where a ritual ablution of her statue as well as a clothing ceremony during which it received a red garment and belt is described.
[53] Trevor R. Bryce notes the view that the Lycian form of Maliya possessed such a role is also supported by an inscription from Xanthos and by a sarcophagus lid depicting her alongside Amazons in a battle scene.
[53] An inscription on a silver vase from Pithom decorated with a depiction of the judgment of Paris labels an Athena-like goddess as Maliya.
[53] Ian Rhuterford instead assumes the equation might have been based on the influence of Rhodes, where Athena was a commonly worshiped deity (especially in Lindos), on Lycian culture of the fifth century BCE.
[60][14] She was understood as analogous to Greek Athena, as indicated by a Greek-Lydian bilingual text from Pergamon and by a number of literary references identified in works of authors such as Hipponax and Hesychius.
[61] The aforementioned bilingual is one of the only Lydian texts which were not found in the proximity of Sardis, and is substantially later than the rest of the corpus, with the most estimates dating it to the late fourth century BCE, specifically to the period between 330 and 325 BCE based on the fact that it mentions that a certain Paitaras was a donor responsible for funding the column it was inscribed on, erected during the construction of the local temple of Athena.
[48] Ian Rutherford compares her case to that of Sandas,[67] and with less certainty to Kubaba, who also retained a degree of relevance after the second millennium BCE, and continued to be referenced in Greek texts.
[48] A literary fragment from Lesbos portrays Malis (Μᾶλις) as a weaver, and according to Annick Payne might be an indication the goddess was also worshiped by Greeks.
[14] According to the latter of these two authors, she had a son with Heracles, Akeles, which might reflect a tradition in which the goddess Malis was worshiped alongside Sandas, an Anatolian god identified with the Greek hero, though there is no certain evidence in favor of this interpretation,[70] and no known texts from the second millennium BCE associate them with each other.
