Anatomy of a Speech: Rhetorical Strategies in the Hittite Instructions for Priests and Temple Personnel (CTH 264)

The Instructions for Priests and Temple Personnel (CTH 264), a text of the later Middle Hittite period preserved in numerous New Hittite copies, has been frequently discussed because of the information its content provides on various aspects of the Hittite religious beliefs and practices. The article focuses on a much less investigated topic, that is, the use of rhetorical strategies displayed by this text. In particular, instances of interrogative phrases and rhetorical questions, of repetitions and reiterations generating a climax, and of anecdotes and proverbs as storytelling devices are analyzed. The trial-like structure and the sapiential flavour informing the § 7 of the text are put in evidence.