Ricerc@Sapienza

The aim of the present paper is twofold. Through the analysis of some words related to the process of weaving in Mycenaean and Hittite documentation, we have tried to verify the presence of a semantic shift from this ‘practical’ concept towards a metaphorical usage. This ‘semantic reworking’ does not seem to be present in either of those second millennium languages, but it is possible to observe some specific peculiarities. On the one hand, Mycenaean data show some linguistic indications of this metaphorical shift that are also attested in the later Homeric epics. On the other hand, as regards the Anatolian sector (where cases of metaphorical shifts are not clearly documented), the historical outcomes of the principal Indo-European roots connected with the idea of ‘weaving’ – but also ‘connecting’, ‘joining’, ‘assembling’, and ‘mixing’ – will be analyzed, in order to verify to what extent these roots have been preserved in Hittite.