Annihilation of the perpetrator of pollution. At the same time the Old Woman trans-

Ferred the evii charm bacic onto the sorcerer hy a spell and manipulating things in

Reverse Order to the way in which the sorcerer’s spell was cast.

The authors of rituals offen referred to two mutually combined ideas of hinding

Or utter powerlessness (katadesis) and release (apolysis). which were generally of

Kev significance for ancient magic, permitting the States of both nature and man to

Be described (see also 3.1.4). The katadesis, understood as a result of contamination

With some magical impurity, required a purificatory ritual to be performed in order

To release and heal the patient. The author of one ritual, which was intended to

Eure a disease that paralyzed a child’s body, used in her incantation a mythologem

Describing the state of nature, first paralyzed and then set free. In keeping with the

Prineiples of analogic magic, the release of nature by the goddess Kamrusepa moved

the rnother goddess DING1R.MAH to do the same for the sick chüd; thus the heal-

Ing came through analogy, from the will of the goddess, and the Old Woman carry-

ing out the ritual only implemented the divine decision.' According to the same

Prineiples, delivery from contamination could be achieved also through specific magi-

Cal practices, for example, by removing bonds from the patient or by cutting earlier

Tied woolen yarn which was believed to have the ability of absorbing impurities. 1

Similar purificatory properties were attributed to dough and bread. 912

Substitution rituals 9 u were intended as a means of deflecting a bad fate from

An individual whose illness or death was foretold by oracles, an evii omen or a dream

(3.2.8). The substitute, identified with a patient, was offered to the deity responsible

Ior a threat. Ifc could be an object (a vessel for example), an animal or figurine, even

a human being, as in the case of the substitute läng rituals that appeared at a later

Stage during the Empire period under the infiuence of Babylonian modele. 914 A spe

Cific group is constituted by rituals from the Hurrian-Kizzuwatnean milieu, referred

feil within the competence of the royal court (LH § 44b, 111), Hoffner 1997a: 52f., 107, 189;

A: 931; cf. also Westbrook 2006: 46ff.: Schwemer 2007a: 2581

910 KBo 3.8+KUB 7.1 (CTH 390A) iii Ifl, Kronaseer 1961: 156«.; Haas 2003a: 537ff.; Oettlnger

Fl; Haas 2006: 3011

Haas 2003a: 6631, 672f.

912 Strau ß 2006: 56ff,

Van Brock 1959; Gumoy 1977: 52«.; Haas 1994a: 895ft; Taracha 2000: 207ff.; Haas 2003a: 40111,

to by the Hittites as ‘taking off the earth’ (taknaz da-). The term was understood as

Deliverance from the threat of death and the power of the netherworld deities. l J In

That case, substitutes in the form of figurines and animale were placed under the

power of the Sun-goddess of the Earth, the mother goddesses DINGIR.MAH 1 ^ 1 '' 0 * 1 ''''/

Darawes Gulses and the netherworld deities. In another ritual, which formally does

Not belong in this group, a woman appears as a substitute for an ill queen and the

916

addressee is Lelwani / Allatu.'

Invoking the gods to come on the scene conditioned efficacy of these practices.

The Humana came up with the idea for rituals of evocation performed usually by

Incantation priests, but also by a diviner, a group of diviners or an Old Woman.

Most of the rituals of this type were introduced from Kizzuwatna and northern

917

Syria.' The main part of the ceremony was the symbolic summoning of a deity

down a ‘path’ made of a colored scarf or marked with flour and the aroma of wirse

918

And oil. This was accompanied by offerings to the gods in pits (Human abi) dug

93 9

Specially for the ritual, through which contact with the netherworld took place.

The practice of markirsg out a road for the chthonie deities and offerings to them in

The abs-pits were also part of other rites, for example, the above mentioned rituals

Of taking the patient off the earth.

Appeasement and summoning of an angry god, whose departure had been caused