In the ancient world, windstorms and especially whirlwinds were often looked at as at best negligence of the gods and at worst the work of evil. Some who have suffered the ravages of nature In this last year might be inclined to agree with the latter, but for a lesson from mythology let us go with the former. The ancient Hittite faith's god of agriculture was Telepinu. He was the son of storm god and a fertility goddess and his "job" was to stay at home and oversee the growth of the crops. Unfortunately, he was not too bright, had a bad temper and tended to wander off. When he did this, the land would dry up, the crops would wither and the livestock die of thirst. In other words, on the positive side Telepinu was the god of farming and on the negative the god of drought. One morning Telepinu got up in a foul mood and was so incompetent that he hurt his feet by putting his shoes on wrong. Angry, he stormed out and went to a far off meadow and went to sleep. None of the gods or goddess could find him. The land started to dry up and the Sun god feared he'd be blamed so he sent his eagle to find Telepinu.
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