Hittite Literature (Onsite and Online Hybrid Class, 6 weeks)

Mondays, April 14-May 19, 5:30-7:00, onsite in ISAC 210 and online via Zoom (and recorded)

$245 (non-members); $196 (members); $98 (Docents, volunteers, and ISAC travelers); $61 (UChicago faculty, staff, lab school, charter school)

Instructor: Theo van den Hout, PhD, Arthur and Joann Rasmussen professor emeritus of Hittite and Anatolian Languages, ISAC

Enrollment in this class is limited. Please register for in person or online attendance

After a general introduction to the Hittites, the chronology and character of their earliest written products, script carriers, text genres, what was written down and what not, we will spend time on historiography, cultic texts, magic rituals, prayers and oracles, and end with Hittite mythology. Hittite texts (in English translation) and some secondary literature will be provided.

Theo van den Hout received his PhD in Hittite and Anatolian Languages from the University of Amsterdam in 1989 after a BA and MA in Classics, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, and Anatolian Studies at both Leiden and Amsterdam. He is the Arthur and Joann Rasmussen professor emeritus of Hittite and Anatolian Languages at ISAC at the University of Chicago, and executive editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary (CHD). He is the author of several books and many articles. His latest book A History of Hittite Literacy. Writing and Reading in Late Bronze Age Anatolia 1650-1200 bc (Cambridge University Press) appeared in December 2020. While interested in all aspects of Late Bronze and Iron Age Anatolia his current personal interests are literacy and writing, as well as visual culture/art in Hittite society.

Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Ar 1989.281.10, Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989

Host or Publisher The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures