La tecnica divinatoria del MUSEN HURRI in ambito ittita

Abstract

The Hittites used different methods of taking oracles: extispicy, bird oracles, KIN oracles and the MUSEN HURRI oracles. The MUSEN HURRI was an animal known not only in the Hittite world, but also in Mesopotamian environment, in fact the word HURRI is Akkadian. The peculiarity of the HURRI-bird technique is that there is no description at all; although a bird is involved, this is a different type of oracle from the bird oracles properly speaking. The HURRI-bird oracles were performed by a diviner/exorcist, not a bird-watcher. There are some similarities with extispicy, but the MUSEN HURRI technique was considered by the Hittites a separate method. Finally, who wants to study the MUSEN HURRI method must analyze other elements, like the terms and the themes used in this kind of texts.