Hitit Büyü Ritüellerinde Deniz (The Sea in Hittite Magical Rituals)

With a core in central Anatolia, the Hittite state (17th -13th cent. BCE) expanded its sphere of influence to the Aegean Sea on the west, Black Sea on the north, Mediterranean and to the inlands of Mesopotamia on the south by means of an expansionist policy in the course of its history. The sea became thus a relevant element in the Hittite history and civilization: not only as one of the main interfaces to the other powers of the Ancient Near East and a trade and communication route, but also as a powerful cultural construct, displaying its influence wit- hin the Hittite imagery, religion, mythology, and literature. In this paper, we focus on the role of the sea in the rich corpus of ritual texts, a collection of more than 4000 tablets and fragments of magical rites drawing on a variety of religious traditions scattered across the whole Hittite Empire. Based on a detailed appraisal of the relevant primary sources, we discuss the diverging roles played by the sea across different cultural milieus, geographical areas, and historical periods, argue for the identification of specific seas in the texts whenever possible, and highlight functional patterns for a better understanding of its place in ritual praxis and popular imagery.