The ominous signifier and the second clause, the apodosis, the signified. This type of

‘research’ expressed the conviction that the gods’ language remains unchanged and

The repetition of the same omen augurs the same result, thus allowing the future to

Be predicted.

Numerous manuals of Mesopotamian origin (partially transiated into Hittite)

Found in the archives in Hattusa give evidence of the Babylonian art of divina-

Tio naturalis. These glossaries of omens were passed along to the Hittites by the

In Hittite texts the iogograms and “’bVZU are both an. equivalent of the Akkadian title

bäru; see Gurney 1977: 45 with n. 6.

844 KBo 17.1+ iv 7ff., Otten — Soucek 1969: 361; Neu 1980: 10; cf. Popko 1995a: 83; Haas 2003a: 780.

845 KBo 18.151, Ünal - Kammenhuber 1974 — 1975.

846 Güterbock 1987: 148; cf. also Schnei 1994: 86.

847 KBo 3.4 ii 16ff., Götze 1933: 46f.; English translation after Mineck 2006: 255. Beal (2003b: 85)

Gives a slightly different translation of this passage.

Hittite Anatoija

Hurrians.'.' They deal with celestial omens such as lunar eelipses (CTH 532)

And other sorts of signs given by the moon (CTH 533), sun (CTH 534), and stars

(CTH 535), with terrestrial happenings like earthquakes (CTH 541), monstrous births

(CTH 538-540), Physiognomie (CTH 543) and "terrestrial’ omens from a person’s

Behavior (CTH 536), medical prognostications (CTH 537) and animal behavior

(CTH 544), as well as with oil (CTH 542) and calendar omens, connecting events

with a given month or day (CTH 545-546).' ’ There are also handbooks of extispicy

With vast registers of marks and configurations of various internal Organs, mostly

the liver (CTH 548-556), including liver modele themselves (CTH 547; see below). 8o °

Tbis was surely not only ‘scholarly’ and echool literature. That the scholarly

Experte in Hattusa benefited practically from these Mesopotamian manuals is proved

Not only by the translations into Hittite which have been found. In a substitute king

ritual, the ruler addresses the Moon-god: “Listen to me, O Moon-god. [Since] you,

[0 Moon-god], have given me a sign. - if you have (thereby) announced evil for me,

(accept this substitute in my place).” ' The relevant manuals deaiing with lunar

omens confirm that a lunar eclipse could have announced the king’s death." In

A later period, the Neo-Assyrian rulers, like the Hittites, did not see any other way

Of avoiding a disaster than performing a substitute king ritual. 808

Knowledge collected in effect of divinatio naturalis was not sufficient in emer-

Gency situations. When the gods did not deign to give a sign, the only way of learn-

iüg their will was to ask questions of them directly, requesting an answer in a par

Tikular divine language. The Latin term for this type of communication was auguria

impetrotiva, or ‘demanded portent, divination.’ More than 700 tablets and fragments

For Human omens (CTH 774), see Kammenhuber 1976b: 163ff.; de Martino 1992; Tremouiile

F. (no. 260), 168f. (nos 279-280).

See, in general, Kammenhuber 1976b: 66ff.; Riemschneider 2004. Cf. also Riemschneider 1970;

Archi 1987; Güterbock 1988; Koch-Westenholz 1993; Wilhelm 1994c.

850 For the texte, see Riemschneider 2004. For 55 modeln of liver» from Hattusa, see Güterbock

Meyer 1987: 38ff, Pis 6-12. Cf. also Biggs 1980-1983; Meyer 1980-1983.

851 KÜB 24.5 obv. 8’f., Kümmel 1967: 8ff.; Engl iah translation after Beckman 1999a: 531. On a

lunar omen as the reason for performing such a ritual, see Kümmel 1967: 189; van den Hont

A: 41; Taracha 2000: 220. Compare also an allusion to a lunar omen in Pittei’s ritual,

KÜB 44.4+KBo 13.241 rev. 2ff., Beckman 1983: 178f.; Starke 1985: 234; Giorgieri 2004: 409f,

KBo 8.47 obv. 12’: KBo 34.110 obv. 10t, 17t; KBo 34.116 i 7’ff., Riemschneider 2004: 18t, 168t,

171.

Parpoia 1983: XXIIff,

Thb Empire Period 147

Of tablets (CTH 561-582) report the results of such oracular inquiries, which eonsist

of seriös of questions phrased so that the answer would come either as a ‘yes’ or as

a ‘no. 5 The consultation proeeeded through a process of elimination. Different poss-

Ible sources of divine anger were tested or the god was presented with different

Options in order to understand his opinion in any given Situation. Most inquiries

Intended to discover the reasons of misfortune attributable to divine disfavor, such

As a ruler’s illness or the plague. The Hittites asked also the gods whether dreams