High priest of Tessub and Mebat in Kizznwatna dunng the reign of bis brother

Tutfealiya III. Negative confession and the concept of personal responsibility for sins

Committed and their resultant punishment appears in Kantuzzili’s prayer and in

The later royal prayers. The confession is intended to appease the gods. At the

Same time, as an element of argumentation in the plea, the suppliant Starts to ques-

tion divine justice, using both moral and ‘beneficiaF arguments. Tbis is an effort to

Dissuade the god from punishment and from sending down further disasters. 888

In later prayers, conditional vows of gifts come to the fore, in keeping with the

Do ut des principle, In her prayer to the Sun-goddess of Arirnia, Mezzulla, Zintuhi, and

The Storm-god of Ziplanda for the well-being of her husband Hafctusili III (CTH 384)

Puduhepa promised solemnly that she would give the deities prized cult objects and

839

Land properties. Her son Tuthaliya IV vowed to build a new temple to the Sun-

Goddess of Arinna in return for military success. 840 This emphasig on making vows

To the gods in the late prayers coincided with the appearanee of a new category of

votive texts, starting from Hattusili the king of {Jakmis (later Hattusili III) under

The reign of bis brother Muwattalli II. 841

Omen and divination

Not only people pleaded with the gods, but the gods also communicated with hu-

mans. ’ An unsolicited sign sent by a deity (auguria oblativa, or ‘offered portent,

Ornen’) was seidom verbal. When the gods seized the initiative in communication,

They could send an omen making use of the elements of the cosmos and nature which

They controlled, for instance, through meteorological phenomena such as thunder

And lightning. From the dawn of civilization the inhabitants of Asia Minor observed

Such phenomena and treated them as a divine message. In response they performed

Singer 2005.

Singer 2004.

839 Lebrun 1980: 829ff.; Siirenhagen 1981: 108£f.; Bernabe 1987: 299ft; Garcia Trabazo 2002: 353ff.;

Singer 2002a: lOlff. (no. 22); Haaa 2006: 285£f.

CTH 385.9, Lebrun 1980: 367ff.; Singer 2002a: 108ff. (no. 24).

841 CTH 583-585 & 590, Otten - Soucek 1965; de Koos 1984; 1989; 1998; 2002: 2007.

Beckman 1999a: 525«.: Riemsehneider 2004: XVff.

The Empire Period 145

Meteorological rites, which are known starting from the Old Hittite period (3.1.3).

Very little is known of divinatorv techniques in the Interpretation of omens that

belonged to the Anatolian tradition from before the Empire period. Düring the Old

LÜ 843

Hittite magical ritual CTH 418 (see 3.1.4) a diviner (A ZU) ' and an Old Woman

Observed a fire in the hearth and divined from the appearanee of a bloody-colored

844

liquid called tarlipa. ' Augimes, or Observation of birds, and ‘symbol’ (KIN) oracles

Derived from a local tradition (see below), although the former System of divination

Is known only from Empire texts, and the sole preserved oracular inquiry of the

845

Latter type that is written in the Old Script may also originate from the earliest

Phase of the Empire period, like several liver modele which reveal the Old

Script, too. 846

Sometimes the bürden of the divine message was manifest, as when the Storm-

God strikes an enemy city with a thunderbolt to show that he is on the side of the

Hittite army: “The mighty Storm-god, My Lord, revealed his divine power. He shot

A thunderbolt. My armies saw the thunderbolt and the land of Arzawa saw it. The

Thunderbolt went and struck Arzawa. It struck Apasa, Uhbaziti’s city (probably Ephe

Sus). Uhhaziti feil to his knees and he became ill.” 847 Most of the omens required

ii ‘scholarly’ Interpretation, which was based in Mesopotamia on collecting such mess»

Ages from the gods and the events that followed them. Vast glossaries were created,

In which omens of a similar type were recorded together to form a collection. Each

Omen was framed as a conditional sentence: the first clause, the protasis, recorded