Verbal Art in Luwian and Hittite Incantations

Abstract

The present article wants to draw attention to the artful wordplay featured in the Cuneiform Luwian incantations known from Hittite Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BCE. Special focus is placed on the combination of assonant, or even alliterating, verbs and their direct objects. In order to compose such a stylistic figure, it is often necessary to make compromises regarding the semantics, leading to combinations that are still understood, but less than ideal to convey the meaning they are intended for. Phonological requirements override meaning. The technique applied by the authors of the spells is to start from a central determining concept (e.g., some kind of evil), then to combine it with a second variable concept that is somehow compatible with the intended sense (e.g., any verb of destruction that has the appropriate phonological shape) and to fill the clause with any further elements required on syntactic grounds. Although there are parallels between the techniques of Luwian spell composition and those in use in Mesopotamia (expected degree of assonance, choice of paraphernalia on account of the phonological shape of their designations), the locus of the use of the relevant words is not the same. In Luwian spells, both words must co-occur in the very same clause uttered in front of the ritual client in order to unfold their effects.