An Illicit Hittite-Latin Affair

Abstract

Hittite has a small family of words referring to (primarily) illicit sex acts and those who practice them: LÚpupuc., probably “(adulterous) lover, paramour” (KBo 6.26 iv 12 and perhaps in a fragmentary context at KUB 43.55:12), its derivative LÚpupuwatar “adultery” (or other type of illicit sexual act) KBo 9.73 obv. 6, and the noun or adjective *pupuwalathat is the base of pupuwalai-zi, “seduce, have sex with” (?) KUB 24.7 i 41 and the latter’s better attested abstract pupuwalatar, variously translated as “seduction, rape, adultery, sex.”1 Though the exact meanings of pupuwalai-zi and pupuwalatar are a little difficult to nail down, Güterbock established2 that all these words are fundamentally reproachful terms for sexual intercourse, whether referring to fornication, adultery, or possibly rape; in only one passage do any of them seem to be in an unambiguously positive context.3 In all the extant examples of pupuand its derivatives where the actors are stated or implied, it is the male role in the sex act that is referred to, a point to which I shall return. The standard reference works ever since Friedrich (HW1 s.v. LÚpupu-) have taken LÚpuputo be a Lallwort,4 and compared it typologically with words like Lat. pūpa “girl, doll” and German Popo “backside.” But whatever lexemes may be whelped in the arena of fornication or adultery, Lallwörter are not terribly likely candidates. It is in fact far too easy to attach this label to anything having repeated consonants or potentially belonging to affective vocabulary, and previous scholars have not made a strong case. After claiming that pupuis a Lallwort, Tischler in HEG dismisses alternative accounts “angesichts des universellen Charakters derartiger Bildungen,” which is circular. In HED, Puhvel adduces a list of similar-sounding “babble-words” with p’s in them for “sweetheart, darling” and