ABSTRACT
It was probably only as a last resort that Hattusili wrote to Ramesses about the matter. His sister Massanauzzi had failed to bear children, and was now well and truly beyond the normal offspring-producing years. Doubtless the Hittite king had consulted his own medical advisers about her condition, but it required no gynaecological expert to conclude that now she was well into her maturity she could never hope to become a mother. The problem was, her brother was most anxious that she should become one. To advise His Majesty that he was asking the impossible was probably more than any royal physician’s job was worth. The alternative was to put off the inevitable and keep his hopes alive for the time being—and if at all possible to shift to someone else the responsibility for ultimately dashing these hopes.
