HOW TO BEWITCH SOMEONE: BEWITCHING TECHNIQUES ACCORDING TO INCANTATIONS IN THE HITTITE AND LUWIAN RITUAL TEXTS

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine Anatolian religious discourses about witchcraft according to anti-witchcraft incantations
in the Hittite and Luwian languages. The importance of this testimony resides in its uniqueness, given that no witchcraft
rituals have been preserved from the Hittite kingdom. Consequently, these anti-witchcraft incantations constitute the most
direct evidence about bewitching techniques. Through philological and contextual analysis, I will examine first the process of
bewitchment, for which there was a great variety of techniques available to the bewitcher. Examples include the manipulation
of anthropomorphic figurines representing the bewitched, rites of analogical magic, and curses. Second, I will address the different
manners in which these anti-witchcraft texts describe witchcraft, showing the specificities of distinct local traditions and
the variety of the ways in which ancient Anatolians conceived of witchcraft.