engaging in sex so soon before the ritual he would jeopardise a
beneficial outcome from it.^3
Officials on temple duty had to be in an absolutely pure or
sterile state before they entered the presence of the god. It was OK
for them to have sex beforehand, but they must then spend the
night in the temple, presumably after they had thoroughly cleansed
themselves from their sexual activity as well as from any other form
of pollution. An official who spent the whole night with his wife
and thus came unclean before the god forfeited his life. The death
penalty was also prescribed for cooks and kitchen-hands who
prepared food for the gods‘in an unclean state’, an offence they
would have committed if they’d had sex the night before. Well,
having the sex was allowable,providedthose who so indulged
bathed themselves at sunrise, to remove all contamination before
having contact with the god’s food. And if you knew of someone
who prepared the gods’food without having had a bath after sex,
and failed to report it, you too would be executed.
The belief in the polluting effects of sexual activity, whether
licit or illicit, was not confined to the Hittites in the Near Eastern
world. Similar beliefs, and the bans and penalties associated with
them, are also found in Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies.
Andillegalsexual activity such as, in Hittite law, certain types of
bestiality, could have widespread ramifications, threatening the
well-being of an entire community where the pollution occurred.
Hence the severity of the penalties imposed for such activity, in
contrast to the often much milder penalties for many other
crimes, including homicide, which affect a much smaller number
of persons.
WHAT WENT ON IN THE ARZANA-HOUSE?
Tofinish off this chapter, let’s turn our attention brieflytoan
institution called thearzana-house. The few references we have in
the texts to institutions so called indicate that they were places of
music and merriment which served food and drink, and also
provided overnight lodgings for their guests.^4 Who were their
customers? Did soldiers frequent these establishments?
NO SEX PLEASE,WE’RE HITTITE 141