Hittite Birth Rituals

Among the rituals kept in the archives of the Hittite capital, more than twenty are concerned with birth and its difficulties. This work transliterates and translates these texts, and provides them with a commentary discussing anthropological as well as philological questions. An introduction sketches the treatment of birth in Hittite texts of various genra, while a summary outlines Hittite "obstetrical" practice as it may be reconstructed from all available cuneiform sources. One chapter is devoted to the character and the role of the human personnel and divinities attendant at birth, and particular attention is given to the vexin problem of the DINGIR.MAH (MEs/HI.A). A glossary of the vocabulary appearing in the Hittite birth rituals is included.