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Concept
Maliya
Summary
Maliya was a goddess worshiped by Hittites in the Bronze Age. She was most likely a deified river in origin, but she was also associated with gardens and with artisanship, specifically with leatherworking and carpentry. The oldest attestations of her have been identified in the Old Assyrian texts from Kanesh. This city continued to be associated with her in later tradition, though she was also worshiped in Hattusa and elsewhere in the Hittite Empire. She is also present in texts originating in Kizzuwatna, which indicate she had a temple in Kummanni, where she was worshiped alongside various Hurrian deities.
It is assumed that a similarly named goddess attested in Lycian texts from the first millennium BCE corresponds to earlier Hittite Maliya. She was worshiped in Rhodiapolis and in other cities in Lycia, and might have been a war goddess. Malis, known from Lydian sources and from references in Greek literature, is also assumed to be a derivative of Maliya by most authors. A text from Lesbos describes her as a weaver. The Lycian and Lydian forms of Maliya were regarded as analogous to Greek Athena, 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.
Maliya originally belonged to the pantheon of Kanesh (modern Kültepe). The oldest attestations of her name are theophoric names of women (for example Maliawasḫai) and toponyms (such as Malitta) mentioned in Old Assyrian texts from this site.
It is presumed that Maliya might have originally been the numen of the river sharing the same name, as indicated by the occasional spelling of her name in cuneiform with the determinative ÍD. It has been proposed that the river Maliya might correspond to either Parthenios (Παρθένιος) in historical Phrygia or to Melas (Μέλας) near Caesarea in Cappadocia. The etymology of the name is unclear.
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