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Luwian Curses as Religious Discourse

  • Laura Puértolas Rubio EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 9, 2022
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Altorientalische Forschungen
From the journal Altorientalische Forschungen Volume 49 Issue 1

Abstract

Luwian incantations embedded in Hittite ritual texts reflect local traditions and religious discourses of different parts of Anatolia and Northern Syria. Among the various types of Luwian incantations, this paper will focus on the contextual analysis of cuneiform Luwian curses related to the Kuwattalla and Puriyanni traditions. Curses will be studied as religious discourse, analysing how individual elements of the curse interplay with the general structure of the ritual text in which it is embedded. To do so, a comparative perspective will be applied. Hittite ritual texts coming from the same or adjacent areas and reflecting common religious traditions will be used to elucidate difficult passages. This study may contribute to improve our understanding of Luwian texts as well as to highlight local concepts related to witchcraft.

Keywords: Curse; witchcraft; cuneiform; religious discourse; Hittite; Luwian

Note

Post-doctoral researcher at the UMR 8167 “Orient et Méditerranée” (CNRS) within the framework of the project “Luwili: Luwian Religious Discourse Between Anatolia and Syria” (ANR-17-FRAL-0007-01/YA 472/2–1), which is a Franco-German research project funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), co-directed by Alice Mouton and Ilya Yakubovich.

Acknowledgements

This paper issues from my work in the project “Luwili: Luwian Religious Discourse Between Anatolia and Syria” (ANR-17-FRAL-0007-01/YA 472/2–1), which is a Franco-German research project funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), co-directed by Alice Mouton and Ilya Yakubovich. I am grateful to Alice Mouton and Ilya Yakubovich for their comments on this paper. I remain responsible for any mistakes. All the transliterations and translations presented here are the result of my personal collation of the photographs of the tablets from the Hethitologie Portal Mainz website (https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/index.php). Therefore, my translations may differ from those of other authors.

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Published Online: 2022-06-09
Published in Print: 2022-06-08

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. A School Tablet in the Shape of a Five-Sided Prism in Adana Museum
  4. Das Verhältnis zwischen Hieroglyphen- und Keilschrift-Luwisch
  5. The Survey of Qaleh (Ghalee) Tepe in Sīstān: Chronology and Analysis of Findings
  6. Two Hurro-Urartian Lexical Parallels
  7. Eine neubabylonische Edition eines mittelbabylonischen Nergal-Balaĝs (BM.35434)
  8. On the Identity of Hartapu
  9. Hethitisch māri- ,Sichelschwert(?)‘ aus archäologischer, philologischer und etymologischer Sicht
  10. Religious Discourse in the Ancient Near East Proceedings of the Conference “Religious Discourse in the Ancient Near East” held at Sorbonne University (Paris) on December 12–13, 2019
  11. Introduction
  12. Verbal Art in Luwian and Hittite Incantations
  13. Luwian Curses as Religious Discourse
  14. Hurrian and Luwian Elements in the Kizzuwatna Religious Texts
  15. The Cult of Ištanuwa (and Lallubiya) between Hattian and Aegean Cultures
  16. Religious Discourse in Ancient Mesopotamia
https://doi.org/10.1515/aofo-2022-0010
Keywords for this article
Curse; witchcraft; cuneiform; religious discourse; Hittite; Luwian

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. A School Tablet in the Shape of a Five-Sided Prism in Adana Museum
  4. Das Verhältnis zwischen Hieroglyphen- und Keilschrift-Luwisch
  5. The Survey of Qaleh (Ghalee) Tepe in Sīstān: Chronology and Analysis of Findings
  6. Two Hurro-Urartian Lexical Parallels
  7. Eine neubabylonische Edition eines mittelbabylonischen Nergal-Balaĝs (BM.35434)
  8. On the Identity of Hartapu
  9. Hethitisch māri- ,Sichelschwert(?)‘ aus archäologischer, philologischer und etymologischer Sicht
  10. Religious Discourse in the Ancient Near East Proceedings of the Conference “Religious Discourse in the Ancient Near East” held at Sorbonne University (Paris) on December 12–13, 2019
  11. Introduction
  12. Verbal Art in Luwian and Hittite Incantations
  13. Luwian Curses as Religious Discourse
  14. Hurrian and Luwian Elements in the Kizzuwatna Religious Texts
  15. The Cult of Ištanuwa (and Lallubiya) between Hattian and Aegean Cultures
  16. Religious Discourse in Ancient Mesopotamia
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