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Blood in Hittite Ritual

The generally anonymous authors of the texts that describe the rites of the Hittite state cult were practical men.1 Laconically they set forth the procedures to be followed and wasted few words explicating or justifying either the ceremonies or the individual ritual actions of which they were composed. Thus in our consideration of the meaning and function of blood in Hittite religious practice,2 we cannot avail ourselves of any clear statement of native belief analogous to that found for Israel in the Hebrew Bible: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement.”3 Nonetheless, Hittite compositions of various genres do contain passages revealing that in Ḫ atti blood (esḫ ar 4) was recognized as the carrier of life and strength. Conversely, its presence was taken as an index of mortality. In a legendary account of the campaigns conducted in Anatolia by the Sargonic king Narām-Sin, the ruler commands that a scout be dispatched to perform the following test on terrifying beings encountered by his forces: