Paškuwatti

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Paškuwatti was a magician from Arzawa . A Hittite ritual text ( CTH 406; 14th century BC) from the archives of Ḫattuša , which is supposed to cure a man of his sexual impotence or homosexuality, has come down to us from her .

Structure of the ritual

The Middle Hittite ritual of the Paškuwatti is aimed at a man who has no offspring or no desire for women. It lasts three days and a young woman serves as an assistant. At the beginning of the ritual, the goddess Uliliyašši is invoked and sacrificed. After the victim has washed himself, he goes to the country with Paškuwatti and the young woman, where a gate is built from reeds, which is tied together with white and red wool. The magician gives the man a spindle and a coat , whereupon he walks through the reed gate. Then the feminine attributes are taken away from him and replaced with a bow and arrow and Paškuwati says to him: “I have taken femininity from you and given masculinity back. Throw away your behavior from a woman, adopt the behavior of a man! "

Then a table with offerings for Uliliyašši is set up in the house, where a sheep is offered to the goddess. At night the man sleeps in a bed in front of the table and the next day he tells the magician his dream, namely whether the goddess has shown herself to him in her form and has slept with him or not. If the treatment was successful, the man donates either a pithos , a ḫuwaši stele or a statue to the goddess . If he does not see the goddess, the ritual is continued.

interpretation

Spindle and rock

The central magical ritual is passing through a gate that is supposed to initiate a transition from one state to another. The spindle and the skirt were the attributes of a woman among the Hittites. Conversely, the Hittite general Šanta, because of his cowardice, publicly replaced his arrows and club with spindle and make-up brush. In Hittite military oaths, spindles and robes were shown and an arrow was broken to show what to expect when a soldier breaks the oath.

Impotence or homosexuality

The Paškuwatti ritual was interpreted in earlier treatises as a ritual against male impotence. A treatise by Jared contradicts this interpretation. L. Miller, Professor of Assyriology and Hittiteology. The decisive factor is the request of the affected man to swap his female behavior for male behavior, since male impotence cannot be counted as behavior. There is also a passage in the text according to which a virgin who is sent to the affected person and approaches his loins is: "But this mortal is full of shit and piss." Earlier interpretations indicated that the man's penis only urinate, but cannot ejaculate. But that doesn't explain the term "shit". Rather, there is a hint of anal intercourse and a general devaluation of male homosexuality. Even the dream does not make much sense in a heterosexual impotent man, since such a man can very well have sexual dreams with women. Miller's interpretation is generally accepted by research and it is being considered whether the ritual of the Anniwiyani can also be interpreted in this direction.

Web links

literature

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Volkert Haas : Ritual-magical aspects in the old Ethite execution of sentences. In: Manfred Hutter, Sylvia Hutter-Braunsar (ed.): Official religion, local cults and individual religiosity (= Old Orient and Old Testament . 318). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-934628-58-3 , pp. 213-226, here pp. 218 f.
  2. ↑ Volkert Haas: Ritual-magical aspects in the old Ethite execution of sentences. In: Manfred Hutter, Sylvia Hutter-Braunsar (ed.): Official religion, local cults and individual religiosity (= Old Orient and Old Testament. 318). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-934628-58-3 , pp. 213-226, here p. 219.
  3. ↑ Jared L. Miller: Paskuwatti's Ritual: Remedy for Impotence or Antidote to Homosexuality? In: Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. Vol. 10, No. 1, 2010, pp. 83-89.
personal data
SURNAME Paškuwatti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION magician
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 14th century BC Chr.