Orion in Hittite

Āllī and the Huntsman

The ritual's purpose is to counter sorcery and it uses some known techniques to do so: the fashioning of figurines to represent the sorcerors, the use of colored wool to reify the impurities and transfer them to the figurines, the consignment of the polluted materia to the netherworld, and feasting, among other things. Other rites seem to feature exclusively or primarily in rituals deriving from the western Anatolian milieu. 6 I will discuss these in turn below. Following the usual incipit introducing the ritualist, the ritual begins with a description of the materia to be used. Most importantly, five figurines are prepared. The two male figurines carry kuršas, which are leather bags used in hunting, but are also sacred objects; they contain the tongues symbolizing the sorcery. The three female figurines wear headdresses. §1 7 (A1 i 1-3; C1 i 1-3; D1 i 1-4; G1+2 i 1-3; F1 i 1′-3′) According to Āllī, woman of Arzawa.

When a person is bewitched, then I do the following: five figurines of clay, among them two men-they carry kuršas (into which) tongues are inserted. §2 (A1 i 4-7; C1 i 4-7; D1 i 4-8; F1 i 4′-8′; G3 i 4-6) The three female (figurines); they have headdresses. One kurtali of clay; it is filled with clay tongues. One clay donkey; it carries them. One shovel and one rake of clay. Three small clay cups. She arranges three lids everywhere in the same way. (Var. "She arranges everywhere on three lids in the same way.")

The ritualist then sets the scene for a trial before the Sun God, who bears the unique epithet "of the Hand." The incantation in §4 makes it clear that the tongues in the kuršas carried by the male figurines contain the sorcery. For the female sorcerer, her garments-headdress, belt, or shoecontain the sorcery ( §5). 6 The medicaments used in § §33-35 (tariyatariya, warduli, ašḫayul, and irhāi) occur only in this ritual and may be specific to Arzawa. 7 As excellent editions now exist for this ritual, only a translation is provided here. For a full edition, see Mouton 2013Mouton , 2016aMouton , 2016b. For a detailed discussion of the rites described in this text, see Collins God know it, so it should be a headdress for her, and she is to put it on her head. May she take them back for herself! It should be a belt for her, and she is to gird herself; it should be for her a shoe, and she is to put it on! The wearing of kuršas (by male figurines in §1 and by female figurines in §27; see below), link this ritual to a cluster of rituals performed for the stag god, Inar/Kuruntiya, that also stems from western Anatolia. 9 The name of the stag god is written d LAMMA kuršaš, identifying him as a tutelary deity "of the hunting bag." For more on the sacred nature of the kurša-, see Archi 2015a. 10 Correctly understood by Jakob-Rost 1972, 25 "Hundekuchen"; Bawanypeck 2005a, 1 "Nahrung"; and Steitler 2017, 334, "dog biscuits." Mouton (2016a) reads NINDA as "4" instead, translating "Il a quatre de ses chiens." Although photo collation of the sign shows the three Winkelhacken atop the vertical to be precisely even, and thus a reading "4" to be more precise, it is difficult not to see this as an error on the part of the scribe given the trope of the dog and horse, which is found also in Tapalazunauli and Huwarlu, with immiul (var. ŠÀ.GAL) for the horse's food and a different term in each case for the dog's: etri, wagessar, and, here, NINDA. The Huntsman, who accompanies the Sun God in this passage, is not a human hunter, but rather a divine being. The incantation in this passage accesses a trope found elsewhere in rituals stemming from western Anatolia that support his divine nature. In one of these, Tapalazanuali's plague ritual (CTH 424.1), the dogs belong to the deity who brings the plague. In another, Dandanku's ritual (CTH 425.2), the bow and arrow are wielded by the god of war and plague, Iyarri. The term LÚ UR.GI7-aš LÚ-aš in this context has usually and awkwardly been translated as "hunter-man," "dog-man," or at best simply "hunter," 11 however, what is surely intended on this mythological level is more gracefully rendered in English as Huntsman.

Paragraphs 9-19 contain repetitive rites in which colored wool symbolizing the impurity is wrapped around the figurines to the accompaniment of incantations designed to transfer the curses to the figurines, that is, to return them to their source, namely, the sorcerers. The polluted materia from these rites are disposed of in §20. The wise woman digs a hole, throws everything into it, seals it, and then hammers it shut with wooden pegs, consigning them forever to the Netherworld.

Offerings follow in § §21-23, first for the marwayanzeš, the demonic "Dark Ones‚" then for "those who turn in front of the Huntsman," the Netherworld, and finally the Sun God ( §21). The wise woman then offers a flatbread for the deity Ariya ( §22), for the demons who guard the crossroad, and finally for the šalawana-demons who protect the gate ( §23). 12 All this she follows with an incantation that references GALA-priests, surely to be equated in this Arzawan context with the galloi-, the eunuch priests of the Anatolian goddess Cybele. 13 The galloi were 11 Mouton 2016a;2016b, 196, 209, etc.: "l'homme chasseur"; Marcuson 2016, 251: "hunting-man"; CHD P, 326: "hunter-man"; Haas 1998: "Jäger"; Jakob-Rost 1972: "Hundemann." 12 For the importance of the city gate in juridical-sacral proceedings, see Marazzi forthcoming. In this article, Marazzi recovers the meaning of a faded inscription on the outer wall of the Lion's Gate at Hattusa as "great seat of the lulu at the gate," with lulu referring to ritual purity and its attainment through the rites carried out at the city gate, which is accordant with the testimony of the rituals, particularly in connection with the rite of "Durchschreitungszauber": "The gate represents the passage that connects different areas/dimensions of 'cultural reality.' It, therefore, needs to be ritually and materially defended and controlled in order to prevent the intrusion/penetration of dangerous elements because they are adverse and/or ritually impure and therefore destabilizing for the social order; on the other hand, its re-crossing can lead to a status of order and social reintegration." 13 These priests are also attested in Hittite context, e.g., in the AN.TAH.ŠUM festival where the GALA sing while drumming the arkammi-and galgalturi-instruments (Haas 1994, 822); here they correspond to the Sumerian GALA. The GALA in our text, however, is more plausibly a reference to the similarly performative priests of a cult that was well-known in the region of Arzawa in the first millennium. Paragraph 24 marks the start of a new set of ritual actions. The bow and arrows are placed in a basket under the bed of the ritual patron with grains and breads overnight. Strips of wool are tied to the head and foot of the bed. In the morning ( §25) the objects are taken out from under the bed and waved over the ritual patron. The Huntsman is invoked to send the sorcery back to the sorcerer, the implication being that he is to shoot the arrows bearing the impurity away from the ritual patron and back to the sorcerers. The wool is cut from the bed, symbolizing the cutting of the maleficia. All of the above is then repeated according to §26. §24 (A2 ii 44′-47′; B ii 2′-5′; C3 ii 37′′-40′′; E ii 1′-5′) She puts karš-grain, pašša-breads, a bow, and three arrows in a basket and places them under the bed. It remains under the bed (overnight). She ties a strip of wool to the head and foot of the bed. §25 (A2+4 ii 48′-52′; B ii 6′-11′; C3 ii 41′′-46′′; E ii 6′-12′) On the second day, when it becomes light, she takes the basket out from under the bed, waves it back and forth over the person and speaks: "O Huntsman, you return the sorcery to the sorcerer! Let it be your cure!" She cuts the wool from the bed and places it in the basket.

With day three of the ritual, figurines are once again the focus, this time made of wax ( §27).

In §27, female figurines wearing kuršas that contain tongues of wax are placed at the head of the bed (symbolizing the head of the ritual patron) with a bird-shaped bowl ( §28). Two more bowls are placed beneath the bed. These remain overnight. In the morning, analogic magical formulae are recited ( § §29-30). In §31, the trial resumes with the wise woman averring before the Sun God that the ritual patron is now free of malignancy. The figurines, which now bear the sorcery, are to be dressed by the Huntsman in polluted garments (recalling the female figurines and their garments listed in §2 above) and he is to escort the evil away. §31 (A2+3 iii 17′-24′; B iii 3′-10′; C3 iii 13′-20′) She seats the person facing the Sun God. She (var. the wise woman) holds out the wax figurines to him/her and says: "Whoever has made (this) sorcery, now they have been treated. They are standing here before you.

The mortal says, 'we are tired.' The figurines say, 'bring (the sorcery), we will carry it away.' Before him let the Huntsman (var. man) 16 dress (the figurines?). Let him put it (the sorcery) on their feet. Let him guard it. Let him carry it away."

The remainder of the ritual is not relevant to the present discussion and the reader is referred to the editions cited above for further content.