Or unsolicited omens really were messages, where the king should spend the winter,

S,.» a

which routes of eampaigns would be the best, etc. ‘ Some of these inquiries are the

Source of interestmg historical information. 868 The results of an individual question

Were checked, usually by means of another System of oracles.

The Hittites practiced at least six different methods of taking oracles. 867 Extispicy,

designated by Hittite scribes as the TE(RETU) ‘exta’ or KUS ‘flesh’ Oracle (CTH 570-

Called for the examination of the innards of a slaughtered sheep. Hepatoscopy

hü- • • LÜ

was part of a testing procedure. A diviner (sumerographically ' HAL or AZU)

Carried out the expertise, and the Hurrian technical terms connected with this div-

Inatory technique indicate that it had reached Anatolia via the Hurrians.

In a related ‘sheep’ or ‘bed’ oracle (CTH 576) the diviner observed the behavior

of a sheep on its way to slaughter for a ‘flesh’ oracle. The Mesopotamian divinatory

genre behind this practice is summa immeru, ‘If a sheep...’ The Hittite ‘bed’ oracles,

With their Hurrian termini technici, may stem from Hurrian versions of the omens. 808

859

Augury, or the Observation of birds (CTH 573), derived from a local tradition.

The augurs (^MUSEN.DÜ or L ^IGI.MUÖEN) observed the flight and other move-

Ments of various types of birds (at least 25 are mentioned in the texts) in a strictly

Defined oracular field resembling the templum of Roman bird watchers. 860

Beckman 1999a: 526ff.; Beal 2002b; 2002c; now also Haas 2008.

For the contents of oracle questions, see Unai 1978: 14ff.

856 e.g.< CTH 569. van den Hont 1998.

For their adequate description, see Beal 2002b; cf. also Kammenhuber 1976b: 9ff.; Beckman

1999a: 527ff.: van den Hout 2003-2GÖ5a; Haas 2008.

Hoffner 1993; Beal 2002b: 641; Y. Cohen 2007.

859 Ünal 1973; Archi 1975b; Beal 2002b: 65ff., 78. For the social Status of the augurs, see now

Hazenbos 2007: 99ft.

An oracle text KIJB 49.60 preserves in column iv the right half of a roughly sketched. plan of the

demarcated oracular area; cf. Archi 1975b: 150 n> 87; Haas — Wegner 1996; 108 Fig, 1; Czyzewska

2007: 150.

148

Hittite Anatoua

Similarly as hepatoscopy, Anatolian augury was in all probabiiity ancestral to fche

Similar Roman practice, adopted frorn the Etruscans acting in this case as an inter-

it remains a puzzle how the gods sent messages through the HURRl-hiräs, per-

Haps a type of duck that nested in a burrow. This type of oracle (CTH 574) was

Performed by a diviner and has nothing to do with augurv. As Richard Beal remarks,

perhaps HUM.RI- bird. oracles were bird-extispicy,... or perhaps poison oracles, or

Perhaps HUR.R1- bird.s simply gave a heads or tails response, either literally or figu-

. • -i „861

rativeiy.'

Another native form are the ‘symbol’ (KIN) oracles (CTH 572). 862 They were per

Formed by an Old Woman and they shouid presumably be «nderstood as a kind of

Game using three types of symbols. The active symbol (perhaps some animal in this

role?) called with the name of a deity, or ‘the dais,’ ‘the king,’ etc., took the passive

Ones (usually abstract ideas of a positive or negative meaning) and gave them to the

receptacles (gods, familiär and unfamiliar persons, and abstract concepts). The ac-

Tual course of the divination remains a mysterv, Snake oracles (CTH 575) resembie

The last mentioned type of divination that made use of symbolic tokens. 863 Water

Snakes assigned to particular symbols moved from one symbolically named spot in

The basin to another.

In dreams the gods spoke directly to humans, although not all night visions fea-

tured deities.' ’ Many dreams, including ‘evil’ ones, 865 were symbolic, and their

Message called for an Interpretation. 866 In the ease of unfavorable signs, which were

The source of contamination, magic was a great help. Mentions of message dreams

or ‘evil’ dreams oceur in prayers, magic incantations, historical texts, and also as

a reason for oracular inquiries (see above). ' The best known dreams perhaps are

Beal 2002b: 72.

862 Archi 1974; Orlamünde 2001; Beal 2002b: 76ff.

Laroche 1958; Beal 2002b: 74; Lefevre-Novaro -

Mouton 2008.

CTH

Vieyn

. Mouton 2007a; 244ff,; cf. also H.G. Güterbock apud Oppenheim 1956: 2545;