The Corpus of Hittite Divinatory Texts (HDivT)

Digital Edition and Cultural Historical Analysis

Joseph Barber (Hrsg.)

Citatio: Joseph Barber (Hrsg.), hethiter.net/: CTH 577.21 (INTR 2026-04-10)


CTH 577.21

Oracles concerning divine anger caused by the omission of prayers

introductio



Kurzbeschreibung

The oracular questions in the present text are not very well preserved. As far as their contents can be discerned, it appears they relate to the king and his cultic actions. The first half of the text is particularly obscure, but the situation becomes somewhat clearer thereafter. The seems the oracular inquiries are about the anger of an unidentified god, which may have been caused by the omission of certain prayers. Following this, there is a large blank space followed by the description of a dream and oracles pertaining to it. It is unclear whether or how this inquiry relates to the first.

Texte

Exemplar AKUB 22.45Bo 4968Ḫattuša

Inhaltsübersicht

Abschnitt 1ID=1Oracle concerning the king
Abschnitt 2ID=2KIN oracle
Abschnitt 3ID=3Bird oracle
Abschnitt 4ID=4Oracle concerning the king
Abschnitt 5ID=5KIN oracle
Abschnitt 6ID=6Bird oracle
Abschnitt 7ID=7Extispicy concerning cultic offerings and prayers
Abschnitt 8ID=8KIN oracle
Abschnitt 9ID=9Bird oracle
Abschnitt 10ID=10Oracle concerning divine anger
Abschnitt 11ID=11Extispicy concerning a fever
Abschnitt 12ID=12Extispicy
Abschnitt 13ID=13Oracle concerning divine anger
Abschnitt 14ID=14Oracle concerning the king and queen
Abschnitt 15ID=15Oracle concerning whether the divine anger is caused by omitted(?) prayers
Abschnitt 16ID=16Oracle concerning whether the divine anger is caused only by omitted(?) prayers
Abschnitt 17ID=17
Abschnitt 18ID=18Extispicy
Abschnitt 19ID=19Description of a dream
Abschnitt 20ID=20Extispicy
Abschnitt 21ID=21Extispicy

History of publication

Handcopy: Walther A. 1928a.

Partial editions: Mouton A. 2007a, 202-203; Sakuma Y. 2009b, 233-236.

Tablet characteristics

Only a single column is preserved on each side of this tablet. No left-hand edge of the column is preserved, so it is unclear how much of the left-hand side of the column is lost, and whether this fragment comes from a multi-column or single-column tablet. The reverse of the tablet has several large blank sections, possibly delineating oracular inquiries on unrelated topics.

Palaeography and handwriting

Late New Hittite script (diagnostic signs: ID, IG, LI, ŠA, TAR. Note especially the IIIc form of ḪA).

Linguistic characteristics

The bird oracles in this text, rather than using the verb uet/uer to denote the appearance of a bird and arḫa pait/paer for its disappearance as usual, make no such distinction, using pait/paer frequently for both.

Editio ultima: 2026-04-10