Sarruma

Šarruma, also romanized as Šarrumma or Sharruma, was a Hurrian god. He could be depicted in both anthropomorphic form, sometimes riding on the back of a leopard, and in the theriomorphic form as a bull. His character is not fully understood, though it is known that he could function as a mountain god. He was regarded as a son of Ḫepat and Teshub. He was also linked to various moon deities. Additionally, the only mythological text he appears in addresses him as a messenger (sukkalu) of Kumarbi. He was worshiped by Hurrians in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria, for example in Kummanni and Lawazantiya in Kizzuwatna. From this kingdom he was introduced to the Hittite pantheon as well. Hittite influence in turn resulted in his introduction to cities such as Aleppo, Emar and Ugarit. He was also venerated in Luwian religion in the first millennium BCE, with theophoric names invoking him attested from as late as the Hellenistic period in Cilicia and Lycia.

==Name== Multiple writings of the theonym Šarruma are attested in cuneiform texts, for example šar-ru-ma, šar-ru-um-ma, šar-ma and partially logographic LUGAL-ma and LUGAL-um-ma, which depended on the well attested use of the sumerogram LUGAL to render the phonetically similar Akkadian word šarru, "king". In the Ugaritic alphabetic script, it was written ṯrmn. This form of the name is vocalized as Ṯarrumannu by Dennis Pardee. In hieroglyphic Luwian it could be rendered as 80+má, 80+mi, 81+r-ma or sa5+r+ru-ma, with 80 and 81 being modern designations for two Luwian signs resembling the lower half of the human body. Both of them effectively functioned as logographic representations of the name Šarruma, and they are sometimes transcribed as, respectively, SARRUMA and SARMA, with the proposed shortening of the name in Luwian context designating the simpler sign. However, as noted by Ignasi-Xavier Adiego it is disputed if clear evidence for the use of the contracted form Sarma exists, as when spelled phonetically in Luwian sources, the name is never contracted. Since in theophoric names logograms were typically used, the only possible attestation of Sarma is an ambiguous toponym, Urhisarma, which might instead contain the unrelated theonym Arma, and the names of Luwian rulers in Neo-Assyrian sources, Sandasarme and Wassurme, which might only represent a parallel to other cases of Assyrian modification of Anatolian personal names and place names, for example Sapalulme for Suppiluliuma or Urbillu for Warpalawa.