Médico y maga en los textos hititas

Abstract

The Hittites thought that any kind of sickness had always a supernatural cause and, in consequence, must be cured by magic mechanisms. This article analyzes the professional sphere of the physician and the sorceress. Foreigner physicians was holded in high esteem because their drugs was very efficient, but Hittites really did not understood the principles that they applied. Hittites physicians used the oracular investigation to diagnose the sickness and to formulate the prescriptions and used rituals constructed according magical principles and musical suggestion. Sorceress, on the other hand, cured in the same way than the physician and became a sacral specialist, privileged in comparison with the situation of the other women of the same society and the other societies of the Ancient World.