CHAPTER 16

Women, Marriage

and Slavery

THE WOMEN OF THE EMPIRE

A

t the top level of Hittite society, women could and
sometimes did wield considerable influence in the
management of their kingdom’s affairs. But what about
all other women in Hittite society? What roles did they play? What
rights did they have? How did they fare in relation to their male
counterparts? Let’s now address these questions.
When soldiers were inducted into the Hittite army, they were
threatened with a humiliating punishment if they broke their
military oaths:

Whoever breaks these oaths and does evil to the king and the

queen and the princes, let these oaths change him from a

man into a woman! Let them change his troops into women,

let them dress them in the fashion of women and cover their

heads with a length of cloth! Let them break the bows,

arrows, and clubs in their hands and let them put in their

hands distaff and mirror!^1

In another text, a king rebukes his troops for their cowardice in
failing to take a city by siege:

Why have you not given battle? You stand on chariots of

water, you are almost turned into water yourself(?) [...] You