OANNES - Uluslararası Eskiçağ Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Nudity, which has always manifested itself in human history and is sometimes considered one of the biggest taboos, has been treated in different ways in many societies and cultures. Although nudity is quite natural in some cultural circles, this situation is evaluated within the framework of beauty and idealism, while in some understandings, nudity is considered immoral and shameful. When we look at the cuneiform texts left behind by the Hittites, who established political dominance in Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BC, we can still see some concrete examples of nudity, although we do not have a wide range of information on how this issue was handled. Nudity, which we encounter in various Hittite festivals and is considered natural, was accepted as a ritualistic act by the Hittites. According to the Hittite cuneiform texts analyzed, the officials who were naked were singers, dancers, ALAN.ZU9, dog-men, and hapiya-men. While the naked performance of some of these officials is sometimes considered a form of entertainment to make people and gods laugh, it also suggests that nudity may be related to hunting, which had an important place in the past. At the same time, although nudity in the Hittite world sometimes expresses humiliating and degrading situations, there are some situations where the act of goodness is emphasized in relation to the dressing of naked people. In mythology, it was sometimes necessary to clothe naked gods to protect them from negative situations, while sometimes the nudity of goddesses, who were depicted naked and symbolized abundance and fertility, was used as a means to seduce evil people. In this study, we will try to examine how nudity, which is still a controversial issue today, is reflected in the Hittite world through Hittite cuneiform sources.