šarḫiye/a-

The only occurrence of the verb with gloss wedge marking comes from an oracle fragment. For a complete list of the other attestations, which are unmarked, see CHD Š:252.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The verb šarḫiye/a- has received a variety of semantic interpretations, all of which describe a violent act: ‘to treat in the manner of a lion’ (Götze apud Sturtevant 1936b:134), ‘to behave in the manner of a lion’ (Gurney 1940a:105), ‘to attack, savage’ (HW:251, followed by Kronasser 1966a:424, Oettinger 1979a:288f. with n. 57, Hoffmann 2000a:180), ‘to jump onto’ (Rizzi Mellini 1979a:542), ‘to press, push (down or out), oppress’ (Beckman 1983a:196), ‘to fall’ (García Trabazo 2002a:301 with 117), ‘to press upon(?), to maul(?)’ (CHD Š:252). The action is said to be performed by the land of Hatti against vassals that do not pay tribute, by the army when fighting the enemy, against evil tongues, and with facial features when cut and destroyed otherwise (for attestations and contexts see CHD Š:252). Based on these contexts and in view of the likely relationship with šarḫuwant- ‘womb, belly, fetus’ (from ‘having innards, guts’), it is suggested here that šarḫiye/a- means ‘to eviscerate, gut’, which is a sufficiently aggressive act against vassals unwilling to pay tribute, prey animals, enemies, and evil tongues. It is especially appropriate in the context of the ritual of ^fPittei: ⁽²⁵⁾na-at egir-pa wa-aḫ-nu-zi a-aš-ma-wa-ra-at ú-wa-an-zi uḫ₄^ḪI.A-uš munus^MEŠ-iš^{! (26)}ḫu-u-wa-an-da-za ^NA4zú-in x [d]a^!?-a-i ^GIŠḫašḫur-an-za ki.min ši-wa-al ḫar-zi ⁽²⁷⁾igi-an-⸢da⸣-za-aš-kán šar-ḫi-ia-at-[ta-ri m]a-an-ni-iš munus-iš^{! MUNUS}šá.zu ^NA4zú^!-ša-aš-kán eme-an ⁽²⁸⁾ku-e-er^!-du ši-wa-la^!-za-an ⸢igi^ḪI⸣^.A-wa-ta-aš-wa-aḫ-ḫa-an-du ^GIŠḫašḫur-lu-wa-an-za-ma-aš-kán ⁽²⁹⁾zu₉-uš da-an-du wa-aḫ-nu-⸢ut⸣ ḫul-lu-us eme-aš munus-za “She turns them (the evil tongues) back: ‘There they come, the sorceress-women!’ She takes the obsidian from the ḫuwanda‑. Likewise the apple. She holds the knife(?). She eviscera[tes] them from the face, the [bi]rth-giving woman, the midwife. ‘Let the obsidian cut the tongue! Let the knife(?) blind the eyes! Let the apple take them, the teeth!’ She turned back the evil tongues, the woman” (KUB 44.4+ rev. 25-29). The verb šarḫiya- ‘to eviscerate’ summarizes the three actions following its mention in the cited passage, viz. cutting out the tongue, blinding the eyes, and pulling the teeth.

[E.R.]

The verb belongs the Hittite class of deradical verbs in -iye/a-^(mi).

[E.R.]

Besides the gloss wedge marking, nothing in the verb indicates a Luwian origin, but the scribe probably connected it with the Luwian word family based on the root šarḫ- (see also Oettinger 1979a:288) and marked it accordingly.

[E.R.]

CHD Š:252; cf. under the GKW lemma above.

For the lemma head see CLuw. šarḫadu.