UGARITIC PRECURSORS TO ISRAELITE CULT

by
Robert F. Smith
Sept 2017
Ritual & Myth
Clifton Jolley has convincingly demonstrated that "[t]he mere fact that detail conforms to the
requirements of legend or myth does not obviate the possibility of its historical accuracy," and he
goes on to fault "Lord Raglan's lack of faith in the power of ritual and myth to order human
experience, . . ."1 Ritual and myth can help provide possible visions of the past. Indeed, as
preeminent historian Jacques Barzun avers,

historians give visions of the past. The good ones are not merely plausible; they rest on a
solid base of facts that nobody disputes. There is nothing personal about facts, but there
is about choosing and grouping them. It is by the patterning and the meanings ascribed
that the vision is conveyed.2

Pattern analysis has become tremendously important in a wide range of disciplines, and, despite
the reticence of those with particular dogmas to defend (or axes to grind), patternism has
become a significant mode of literary and historical classification -- if only because the use and
reuse of stock characters, episodes, topoi, and plots in various genres of literature has been so
widespread.3

In dealing with ritual, myth, and history, in his own inimitable way, the late Hugh Nibley always
employed patternism as a primary ingredient, and he frequently cited works by members of the
now international patternist school -- though he admitted that the whole thing began taking
coherent theoretical shape over a century ago with the platonistic Cambridge Patternists (Myth-
Ritual School), also known as the "Harrison Circle," and which spread with the Uppsala School and

1
C. H. Jolley, "The Sublime, the Mythic, the Archetypal and the Small," unpublished doctoral dissertation
(BYU, August 1979), 38-96 (quotation at 95-96); Jolley, "The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith: An Archetypal
Study," Utah Historical Quarterly, 44 (Fall 1976):329-350.
2
Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence (2000), x-xi.
3
John L. Winkler, The Novel, in M. Grant & R. Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean
(1988), III:1563-1572, citing especially Richmond Lattimore, Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy (1964); J.
David Pleins, Murderous Fathers, Manipulative Mothers, and Rivalrous Siblings: Rethinking the
Architecture of Genesis-Kings, in A. Beck, et al., Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David
Noel Freedman (1995), 121-136; Stith Thompson, Motif-Index to Folk-Literature, 1st ed. (1932-1936); 2nd
ed. (1955-1958); Dov Neuman (Noy), Motif-Index to Talmudic-Midrashic Literature, 2 vols., published 1954
doctoral dissertation at Univ. of Indiana (1982); James Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion, 3rd ed., 12 vols. (1935); Aftermath: Supplement (1937).
 2

Kultgeschichtliche Schule,4 and has ever since had plenty of followers. We won't comment here
upon the implications of E. E. Evans-Pritchard's very effective debunking of nearly every theory of
religion and magic (since most of the theories are based squarely upon the preconceptions of
pseudo-anthropological theorists, and deserve to be debunked),5 because the various theories do
apply well enough in their limited areas and because Cambridge Patternism is one among a
number of these useful analytic tools.

However, one frequently hears warnings in this connection against the genetic fallacy, and
against "parallelomania."6 Questions have been raised about the validity of the hard-line myth-
ritualist's equation of ritual myth (i.e., ritual as the source of myth), and even as to whether
myth is always or usually associated with ritual (the moderate position), while the general
comparative method popular with this school has also come under increasingly severe attack 7 --

4
Cf. H. Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, chapter 23 (1957/ 1964) = Collected Works of Hugh
Nibley VI:xv,295-310; Nibley, "Mixed Voices VII: The Comparative Method," Improvement Era, 62 (Oct &
Nov 1959), 744ff. (reprinted by FARMS as N-MIX-5), citing other works employing the methods of the
myth-ritual school = Collected Works of Hugh Nibley VIII:193-206; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study
in Magic and Religion, 1 vol. abridged ed. (1922/ 1951); T. H. Gaster, Thespis: Myth, Ritual and Drama in
the Near East (1950/1977); S. H. Hooke, ed., Myth, Ritual, and Kingship (1958); Hooke, ed., Myth and
Ritual: Essays on the Myth and Ritual of the Hebrews in Relation to the Culture Pattern of the Ancient East
(1933); Jane E. Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual (1913); Harrison, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of
Greek Religion, 1st ed. (1912); 2nd ed. (1927); Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd
ed. (1922); W. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites: The Fundamental Institutions, 1st
ed. (1889); 3rd ed. (1927/1969); Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship (1962/1963);
Mowinckel, He That Cometh (1956); Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East
(1943); Geo Widengren, The Ascension of the Apostle and the Heavenly Book (King and Saviour III) (1950);
Alan Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity, Myth and Man series, ed. Joseph Campbell (1954); Jaan
Puhvel, Comparative Mythology (1989).
5
Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religions (1965).
6
See Samuel Sandmel, "Parallelomania," Journal of Biblical Literature, 81 (1962):1-13; Douglas F. Salmon,
Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective
Unconscious, Dialogue, 33/2 (2000):129-156, reviewed by William J. Hamblin in FARMS Review of Books,
13/2 (2001):87-107, with Appendix by Gordon Thomasson; cf. Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft (1953),
223-224, cited in Bruce M. Metzger, Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian (1968),
10, n. 4. Cf. also Madison U. Sowell, "Defending the Keystone: The Comparative Method Reexamined,"
Sunstone, 6/3 (May-June 1981: 44, 50-54; S. Talmon, The Comparative Method in Biblical Interpretation
Principles and Problems, in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 29 (1978):352-356.
7
On the attack has been Harry C. Payne, "Modernizing the Ancients: The Reconstruction of Ritual Drama
1870-1920," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 122 (1978):182-192; G. S. Kirk, "On
Defining Myths," in A. Dundes, ed., Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth (1984), 53-61; The
Nature of Greek Myths (1974/1975); Myth, Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures
(1970); Joseph Fontenrose, The Ritual Theory of Myth (1966); Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its
Origins (1959); Gerald F. Else, The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy (1965/1967); H. D. F. Kitto,
Poiesis: Stucture and Thought (1966), 200ff.; E. R. Dodds, "On Misunderstanding Oedipus Rex," Greece &
Rome, 13 (1966):37-49; cf. Walter Burkert, "Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual," Greek, Roman, and
 3

suggesting that, if used, it ought to be used with great care. In any case, it certainly ought to be
used for the very practical reason that it delivers excellent results.8

Robert A. Oden's more recent assessment concludes that, though it is flawed, and even though
many myths worldwide lack demonstrable association with ritual, myth-ritualism's "continued
popularity is due in part to the force of evidence that suggests that some myths are beyond
doubt linked with rituals," and "that myths rarely, if ever, exist in isolation." 9 As the late Robert
Graves said:

True myth may be defined as the reduction to narrative shorthand of ritual mime
performed on public festivals, and in many cases recorded pictorially on temple walls,
vases, seals, bowls, mirrors, chests, shields, tapestries, and the like.10

Strictly speaking, in this connection, "patternism" refers to the structure-in-common of the myth-
ritual complexes of the Near East & Mediterranean area, 11 though herein we are also using the
term in its broader sense. Moreover, Walter Burkert has consistently and systematically shown

Byzantine Studies, 7 (1966):87-121, and his Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial
Ritual and Myth, trans. P. Bing (1983), from 1972 German ed. -- my thanks to Dr. William Seavey for calling
most of this material to my attention.
8
Cyrus H. Gordon, Ugaritic Literature (1949), 7, and T. Gaster, Thespis, 49, maintain the priority of ritual
over myth (both cited in H. Nibley, "The Idea of the Temple in History," Millenial Star, 120 [1958]:235, n.
60 = What is a Temple? [1963] = FARMS N-IDE = Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, IV:355-390).
9
Oden, The Bible Without Theology: The Theological Tradition and Alternatives To It (1987), 67; so also
David P. Wright, Ritual Narrative: The Dynamics of Feasting, Mourning, and Retaliation Rites in the
Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat (2001).
10
Graves, The Greek Myths, rev. ed., 2 vols. (1960), I:12; so also C. J. Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals:
Enactments of Religious Renewal (1967), 11-12, and passim, cited in Jack Finegan, Myth & Mystery: An
Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World (1989), 15, . . . the myths and related traditions
were kept alive in ritual and cult, and reflected in architecture and art; cf. J. G. Macqueen, The Hittites
and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor, rev. & enl. ed. (1986), 151.
11
R. Oden, Bible Without Theology, p. 65, has this patternist structure-in-common as (1) conflict, (2)
disaster/death, (3) lamentation, and (4) rebirth. Following van Gennep, Jane Harrison preferred it as
"preliminal - liminal - post-liminal" or "entry, sanctification, exit": "all the rites de passage have the same
schema, birth, marriage, initiation, death, they are initiations: and true myth as opposed to legends have
the schema . . ." (ca. 1910, JEH Papers, Newham College, Cambridge Univ.); in her undated and
unpublished essay, "The Meaning of the word telery in relation to the social origins of Greek religion," she
says: "All the rites are, as M. Van Gennep has taught us, rites de passage, . ." (Gilbert Murray Papers, GM
25, Bodleian Library, Oxford, referring to Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. M. B. Vizedom &
G. L. Caffee [1960], from the 1909 Les rites de passage; the late Joseph Campbell saw this as separation -
initiation - return in his Hero With a Thousand Faces, 2nd ed. [1968], 10,30); cf. H. Nibley, The Message of
the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 1st ed. (1975), xii, 65; Tod R. Harris, The Journey of the
Hero: Archetypes of Earthly Adventure and Spiritual Passage in 1 Nephi, Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies, 6/2 (1997):43-66, available online at
http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu. edu/publications/jbms/6/2/S00004-50cb761dd8ec84Harris.pdf .
 4

that interlinked myth and ritual was the sacred road to salvation in ancient Greece,12 while
Arnold Eisen has demonstrated that it is not religious belief but ritual practice which has assured
the long survival of Judaism and of the Jewish people.13

Ugaritic Myth & Ritual

Gregorio del Olmo Lete has noted the recitative character of myths as belonging to ritual and
some cultic myths are supposed to have elements which are recited, . . . The rite is not silent
movement nor is myth recited without movement: gesture and word belong to each other.14
Compare the cultic myths in KTU 1.23 and 1.24, and the mythological rituals in KTU 1.108,
and 1.161.15 Indeed, Ugaritic spr means recitation.16

The Canaanite Heritage

Amihai Mazar says that

The great influence of Canaanite language, literature, and mythology on the biblical
literature indicates continuous cultural development from the 2nd to the 1st millennium
B.C.E., in ancient Israel and the incorporation of Canaanite elements into Israelite culture
at a rather early stage of its history. The carriers of these Canaanite literary traditions
could have been surviving Canaanites who continued to inhabit the coastal and northern
plains of the land of Israel, as indicated by archaeological research. These Canaanites
would have been assimilated into Israel from the 10th century on, as indicated both by the
archaeological evidence and in biblical passages such as 1 Kgs. 9:20-21.17

Three Days & Three Nights

Gregorio del Olmo Lete says that strongly Hurrian KTU 1.111 belongs to the corpus of mlk-
mythology,18 i.e., ritual and myth are united to explain that the kings divinization was
celebrated for three days and three nights (the end of the lunar month) by means of burnt
sacrifices and communion sacrifices,19 but also with a sacred marriage rite and ascension.20

12
Burkert, Savage Energies: Lessons of Myth and Ritual in Ancient Greece, trans. P. Bing (2001).
13
Arnold M. Eisen, Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community (1998).
14
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 257.
15
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 257 and n41.
16
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 316, KTU 1.107:14.
17
Mazar, Remarks on Biblical Traditions and Archaeological Evidence Concerning Early Israel, in W.
Dever and S. Gitin, eds., Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and
Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age through Roman Palaestina (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2003),
86, cited by Brant Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History (SLC: Kofford, 2015),
61 n27.
18
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 168.
19
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 161.
20
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 166,168.
 5

Del Olmo Lete takes note that these three days and three nights

inevitably brings to mind Christs three days in the tomb, in the Gospel. In fact, in
Ugaritic mythology, the journey to and from the other world lasts three days, as is evident
from KTU 1.20-22.21

Samuel Noah Kramer had already alerted us to this motif as merely one of a constellation of such
parallels to Jesus Christ in Sumerian mythology (the Dumuzi-Inanna cycle):

a. three days & three nights in Netherworld

b. thirty shekels as term of contempt
c. epithets "shepherd," "anointed," and "carpenter" (Sumerian NAGGAR =)
d. agony suffered; scourged and beaten
e. bound and pinioned
f. undressed
g. vicarious substitute for all mankind
h. virginity of Mother-goddess22

Additionally, William R. Stegner has pointed out in detail the way in which the Gospels portray
Jesus as having reenacted crucial biblical events in his own life, e.g., (1) the Binding of Isaac
(Aqeda) with his Baptism, (2) Israel in the wilderness with his Temptations in the wilderness, and
(3) Manna for Israel with the Feeding of the Five Thousand.23 One can enumerate an endless
succession of such reenacted motifs,24 but that is peripheral to our main concern here since
those biblical events so frequently have much more ancient precursors.

Seven-Day Festivals
There is a seven-day festival pattern at Ugarit,25 and in Ugaritic epic.26 This matches the seven-
day festival pattern at Emar in north Syria,27 not to mention of the Israelites. Also at Ugarit, there

21
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 172, citing K. Spronk, Beatific Afterlife in Ancient Israel and in
the Ancient Near East (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Kevelaer, 1986), 170.
22
Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite (Bloomington: Indiana Univ., 1969), 133; cf. W. F. Albright, From the
Stone Age to Christianity, 2nd ed. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday-Anchor, 1957), 193-194, 397-398, n81; D.
W. Young, With Snakes and Dates: A Sacred Marriage Drama at Ugarit, UF, 9 (1977):291-314; Ezk 8:14,
Tammuz = Dumuzi (= Dionysus; W. Burkert, GRBS, 7:101, n. 30); J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, one-volume
abridged ed. (Macmillan, 1922), 376-456, and A. E. P. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity (London:
Hutchinson, 1928), 67-119, provide broader discussion of later dying-and-rising god motifs-in-common
with that of Jesus.
23
Stegner, Narrative Theology in Early Jewish Christianity (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1989).
24
Cf. Geza Vermes, Jesus and the World of Judaism (London: SCM, 1983), 6,10-11,27-28 (nn61-62,69); J. L.
Houlden, Patterns of Faith (SCM/Fortress, 1977), 41; for the Elijah & Jesus parallels.
25
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., ??
26
S. E. Loewenstamm, The Seven Day-Unit in Ugaritic Epic Literature, Israel Exploration Journal, 15
(1965):121-133.
 6

are seven rpum kings, seven sacrifices, and seven greetings,28 in addition to seven star-gods (ilm
kbkbm), and seven Baals (below). Indeed, one should note that both Baal-Hadad and YHWH
arrive in a great thunderstorm, with seven thunders or seven lightnings (Ps 29:3-9; KTU 1.101.3-4
= Ugaritica V.3.3-4).29 See below on YHWH and Baal.

Calendar at Ugarit30
1. ri yn, rau yni First Wine (Akkadian r karni / yni) (KTU 1.41, 1.87) time of Great
New Year festival and Great Atonement liturgy in autumn (Sept/Oct), and KTU 1.41 even
mentions (lines 50ff.) a ritual reminiscent of Hebrew sukkt.31 (Old Israelite tnm)
-- (intercalated month, iy, aiya)
2. nql (KTU 1.138)
3. mgmr
4. pgrm bodies (Alalakh Pagri)
5. iblt (KTU 1.119)
6. yr, iyyaru, yr (Nuzi iyar; Alalakh Yari; Old Israelite ziw) (KTU 1.105, 1.112) April/May
7. lt, lt
8. gn, Gannu Garden; Royal Mausoleum (KTU 1.6.62:3)
9. itb, sb
10. ittbnm
11. trt
12. db, dbm sacrifices (Old Israelite zbm)

Canaanite Feast of Tents

On the thirteenth (day) the king shall wash himself (becoming) purified btlt rt.yrt.mlk. br[r]
(KTU 1.41:3 1.87:54-55 in the month of aiya), in preparation for the Offering of Firstfruits (ri.
argmn), etc., on the 14th of First Wine.32 Then, on the roof on which there will be four huts of
branches at each side (KTU 1.41:51 1.87), for which del Olmo Lete observes that

the initial location of the rite bgg (the roof) is surprising, a sacred place where the
eight huts (made) of branches, cabins or shacks are set up. This ritual requirement
is surprising, both for the number, the ogdoad, . . and for the cultic installation, which
inevitably brings to mind the huts (sukkt) also installed on the roof during the

27
Z. Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 46, citing D. Fleming in Revue biblique, 116:13,15-19,163-
164,169.
28
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 156 n67; cf. seven days of banqueting in KTU 1.22 I 22-25.
29
John Day in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:548-549.
30
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 19; Wilfred G. E. Watson and Nicolas Wyatt, eds., Handbook
of Ugaritic Studies, HdO (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 301-302; V. E. Koffmahn, Sind die altisraelitischen
Monatsbezeichnungen, Biblische Zeitschrift, 10/2 (July 1966):216-217.
31
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 19 n52, citing J. de Moor, New Year with Canaanites and
Israelites, part 1 (Kampen, 1972); cf. KTU 1.40, 1.41, 1,87.
32
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 82.
 7

Hebrew New Year Festival, which occurs precisely on the new moon of the first month at
the end of the grape harvest.33

At the close of this Feast of Tents,

at sunset the king shall remain desacralized and, being splendidly robed and with a clean
face, they shall enthrone him in the palace and, once there, he shall raise his hands to
heaven,34

which is an act of intercession and invocation, and is always . . . made from profane space and
time in contrast to the act of sacrifice.35 Thus, this ritual implies

that the king intervenes at some stage stripped of his royal robes and with his face
stained or disfigured , in a context of religious symbolism reminiscent both of the
Hebrew feast of sukkt already mentioned and of the Mesopotamian ceremony of bt
rimki and the frequent occurrence of ritual huts in that liturgy. One could even see here
an echo of the New Year ritual, which features the suffering king re-instated, as staged
36
in the late aktu-festival.

A Canaanite Ym Kippr
(And?) the king shall sit, purified (and there will be) atonement (?) . . . and proclamation of the
(feast) day ytb.brr.wm[y ]x wq[r] (KTU 1.41:7 1.87), with which del Olmo Lete compares
The great atonement ritual KTU 1.40 may belong to this context as a sort of Canaanite ym
(hak)kippr,37 in that he atones for the community and proclaims the festival. 38 In his
lengthy discussion of KTU 1.84, del Olmo Lete defines it

as a liturgy of national atonement, a sort of Canaanite ym kippr in which the list of

every possible sin by the peopleresidents, citizens and sovereignsis combined with
the proposal for and carrying out of a sacrifice.39

The biblical parallels, in connection with the month of tiri are striking.40 However, it does not
mention, in this context, the Hebrew ritual of the scapegoat, which bears the sins of the people

33
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 97, citing del Olmo Lete, Sukkt: de Ugarit al Talmud.
Pervivencia de un ritual en el terrado, in Festschrift Prez, 249-269 (Homenaje al professor Miguel Prez
Fernandez [Granada, 2004]).
34
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed.,98, 245 (quote), citing KTU 1.41:50-53.
35
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 245.
36
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 98-99, citing Pritchard, ANET, 331ff.
37
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 85 and n85.
38
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 91.
39
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 127.
40
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 91, citing R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 495-502, 507-510.
 8

(Lv 16,20ff.).41 For that we must turn to Hittite nakui scapegoat, substitute, which was
borrowed from Hurrian,42 and which reflects the Hurrian itkalzi purification ritual and azazhum
scapegoat/cathartic sacrifice used like Hebrew Azazel, to assuage the "anger of the god."43

Rites and Ordinances

Incubation rite libation-offering, robing, and prostration (Epic of Kirta, KTU 1.17 I 11-16).44
Funeral rite lamentation, burial, and incisions (KTU 1.19 I 38-42, II 9-15, IV 9-15).45
Banquet offering to the gods in the kings house which can be understood as a cultic
expression of sacrifice.46
New Year Festival enthronement of the god-king . . . and the ascent to the throne of a new
king.47

Del Olmo Lete says that

the cry for help of / to apu, as a prototype of resorting to magic which KTU 1.100
develops; cf. the Hebrew construction weidqtek yerannn, Ps 145,7.48

Sacrificial Banquet
In commenting upon KTU 1.91 (R 19.015), del Olmo Lete observes that

The consumption of wine has a particular cultic function and sense (marziu): wine is
drunk in honour of the patron god (in this connexion, note the presence of wine in Jewish
and Christian liturgies, and in the Bacchic cult of Greece), so that ritual consumption and
49
offering go together . . . .

Tripartite Temple Structure

Surrounded by an outer wall, with a forecourt in front and raised on a platform (cf. KTU
1.13:10-13), approached by a wide staircase, the actual temple (22 x 16 m.) comprises
three areas: vestibule, central nave, and inner chapel or holy of holies (cf. d bt bl; KTU
1.119:9). This model, with variations in the position of the vestibule, is typical of the
Middle Bronze Age in Syria or simply represents the universal shape of sacred space
with a coaxial entry hall which separates and orientates it. In the court there is an altar
41
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 127 n251; It is a sort of penitential psalm.
42
William W. Hallo, Leviticus and Ancient Near Eastern Literature, in B. J. Bamberger, ed., Leviticus, The
Torah: A Modern Commentary, III (N.Y.: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1979), XXVI-XXVII,
citing O. R. Gurney, Magic Rituals: The Scapegoat, in Some Aspects of Hittite Religion (1976-1977), 47-52.
43
Wilhelm, Hurrians, 75, citing Lev 16:8-22 (Syriac zzjl), magical impurity and divine anger being equated.
Wilhelm notes that the azaz-stem is a semitic loanword in Hurrian (Akkadian "to be angry").
44
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 279.
45
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 280.
46
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 278.
47
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 277.
48
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 323 n153.
49
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 376; a libation and toast?
 9

(cf. mdb bl; KTU 1.41:41) with two steps, probably mentioned in the cultic texts (cf. mlt
mdbt; KTU 1.41:23-24), . . .50

The recent excavation of Tel Burna (possibly Libnah) has uncovered an Iron II Canaanite cultic
building, which may have been a temple (Area B1-A), and other indications of Canaanite
worship.51 Del Olmo Lete adds that, to resort to Balu it was necessary to go up (ly) to his
temple (cf. KTU 1.119:33), as supported by archaeology.52

Temple Dedication
Del Olmo Lete comments on the votive prayer given in KTU 1.119:26-36, a cultic psalm, and
compares it to

Solomons prayer at the inauguration of the Temple of Jerusalem: . . . (1 Kg 8, 33-34),

without the actual words of the prayer being given. This is the usual description of its
form given by scholars, who in turn specify its final meaning (renewal of divine royalty,
oracle of salvation, . . .) and they adduce parallels, especially from the Bible.53

Balu apnu = Hadad, Lord of Mount azi (dIM be-el urn a-zi/ dUR.AG a-zi)
Del Olmo Lete comments that

this theology of the divine Mountain, clearly Mesopotamian in origin, will reappear in
54
the biblical theology of Mount Zion.

See below on YHWH Baal.

Elohim/Ilahuma
G. del Olmo Lete characterizes ilhm in Ugaritic texts as "the Ilhma, divine beings," and relates
them to Hebrew lhm.55 He suggests that ilh, whether a secondary retro-formation from ilhm
or radical expansion of *l must take into account the form lh in Old South Arabic, Arabic, and

50
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 21-22, citing esp. W. von Soden, Le temple, terminologie
lexicale. Einleitung . . . , in Surenhagen, et al., Le temple et le culte, XX RAI (Leiden, 1979), 133-143; W.
Zwickel, Der Tempelkult in Kanaan und Israel, FAT 10 (Tbingen, 1994).
51
Ellen White, Canaanite Religion at Tel Burna: The mysterious building connected to Canaanite religion
at Tel Burna, Bible History Daily, Aug 23, 2015, online at http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/
biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-places/canaanite-religion-at-tel-
burna/?mqsc=E3807994&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=BHD+Daily%20Newsletter+Daily
%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=E5B824 ; Itzick Shai, How Canaanites Worshiped, BAR, 41/5 (Sept-Oct,
2015):??
52
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 323 n156.
53
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 256 n40, citing Herdner, et al.
54
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 58, citing R. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the
Old Testament (Cambridge, Mass, 1972).
55
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 82,85,87,180.
 10

Hebrew, and the primary semantic meaning god.56 He further sees the syntagm ilhm blm . .
. as two asyndetic designations of the same divine entities, not as two different groups of the
pantheon.57 Tess Dawson likewise says that "the Ugaritic word ilahuma is related to one of the
names of the Hebrew deity, Elohim, which means 'gods'." However, she sees the ilahuma or
Divine Assembly specifically as the sons and daughters of Athiratu and Ilu.58

God the Father

In his study of the Ugaritic pantheon, Gregorio del Olmo Lete notes that the god-lists at Ugarit
demonstrate the preeminence59 of the god-father (ilib), an epithet in which, possibly there is
an evolution or syncretism of the type mentioned above: from the father of the god or the
father-god of family / personal / nomadic religion with its divinized ancestors, there is a shift to
the god / Ilu-father, i.e., to the confession of the supreme god Ilu under the title of universal
father (father of gods and men, as he is known in myth and epic). To this primitive epithet /
title belong two other personal names of the supreme deity, culturally more exact but noetically
more imprecise, il and dgn (1 + 2), forming a first tri-unity of epithets (cf. also KTU 1.123:1-3: il
wilmilil r). Although the epithets might be distinct in the cult and in the prayers of the
faithful, in myth and theology they correspond to the same god. There can be little doubt that
the equation of Ilu and Dagnu expresses the process of cultural and cultic identification of two
(Canaanite / Amorite) pantheons. That is, the temple of Ilu being the temple of Dagnu,
while, at Ebla, Dagnu is the supreme god, the lord of Canaan.60

Del Olmo Lete adds that My father is the god summoned by the faithful person who utters the
incantation, . . .61

Ancestor Cult
Baruch Halpern maintains that the segregation of Yhwhs cult from that of the ancestors may
have been a relatively late development, and Brant Gardner concludes from this that the older
underpinnings of a clan-based ancestral cult forms the base on which the development of an
exclusive Yahwistic religion was built.62 In any case, as Halpern goes on to say, the state

56
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 342 n14.
57
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 343 n17; cf. p. 60.
58
Dawson, The Horned Altar: Rediscovering & Rekindling Canaanite Magic (MN: Llewellyn Worldwide,
2013), 48, Athiratu = Asherah, who is elsewhere the consort of YHWH (at Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-
Qom); Steve Wiggins, A Reassessment of Asherah: With Further Considerations of the Goddess
(Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Pres, 2007).
59
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed.,368; 366, a late sublimation of the ancestor cult.
60
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 57 and n80.
61
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 323 n156, reading KTU 1.82:9.
62
Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History (SLC: Kofford, 2015), 60 n23, citing
Halpern, Sybil, or the Two Nations? Archaism, Kinship, Alienation, and the Elite Redefinition of
Traditional Culture in Judah in the 8th-7th Centuries B.C.E., in J. Cooper and G. Schwartz, eds., The Study of
 11

advanced the interests of its god, Yhwh, and of his divine minions at the expense of traditional
mantic arts, ritual specialists, and the ancestral cult.63

YHWH and Baal

Both Baal-Hadad and YHWH are termed "Cloud-Rider" (Ps 68:4 [MT 68:5]; cf. Dan 7:13), both
dwell on Mt. afon (Pss 29:3,10, 48:2 [MT 48:3], Isa 14:13), both destroy the great Dragon, or Sea
(Ps 74:12-15, Isa 27:1, 51:9 [ II Ne 8:9], Job 7:12), and (as we have seen) both arrive in a great
thunderstorm, with seven thunders or seven lightnings (Ps 29:3-9; KTU 1.101.3-4 = Ugaritica
V.3.3-4),64 etc.

Simon B. Parker has likewise commented on Canaanite Danel (of the Ugaritic Rapiuma texts and
Aqhat Epic) being

mentioned alongside Job and Noah in Ezek 14:12-20, verses which imply that all three
were the subject of stories in which they save the lives of their children (unlike the Daniel
of the biblical book of that name). He appears again as a model of wisdom or cleverness
in Ezek 28:3. Later in Jub. 4:20, he is mentioned among the antediluvian patriarchs.65

Motifs
The notion of a spring/fountain in an Ugaritic temple is a common one for ancient Near Eastern
temples generally, and in the Solomonic temple specifically.66

Obtaining a son from the godswhich is a literary topos throughout ancient Near Eastern
literature, including the Bible-- . . . .67

Kirta, Daniilu, and Aqhatu are heroes, in reality Rapama, incarnations of a past turned into
epic legend, making tangible image and social ideal of the group in which they are preserved. In
Israel they would be replaced by the patriarchs with the same function and by means of the

the Ancient Near East in the 21st Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference (Winona
Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996), 299.
63
Halpern, Sybil, 303, cited by Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers, 61.
64
All discussed by John Day in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:548-549; cf. Fred E. Woods,
Who Controls the Water? Yahweh vs. Baal, FARMS Occasional Papers, 4 (2003):1-12.
65
S. B. Parker in Parker, ed., Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, 50.
66
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 94 n31 (b-nbk): The existence of a well / source is normal in
an ancient Near Eastern temple; John M. Lundquist, The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near
East, in The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives, ed. Truman G. Madsen
(Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1984), 5376; John H. Walton, Ancient Near
Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual Word of the Hebrew Bible (Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2006), 123-124; cf. the Zamzam well at Mecca, the central temple of Islam.
67
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 281.
 12

same literary technique, but with different social presuppositions, they are tribal heroes, not
kings, although royalty is here of a strongly domestic and family nature.68

The king is the incarnation and expression of the physical and moral relationship of the kingdom
towards its divine protectors, an ideology which also underlies the biblical concept of the king
and has been expressed in the category of corporate personality.69

Historical or Non-Historical (Prototypical)

The heroic Ugaritic epic is designed to exalt the origins of a clan or city through its founders,
while the narrative focus is theological in the biblical tradition, and brings focus upon the
human aspect to the protagonists, and upon their ethically based covenant. 70

. . . the historical background of the epic cannot be checked and indeed becomes secondary to
its religious and social meaning.71

Paganism
Gregorio del Olmo Lete concludes his most recent study of Canaanite Religion by saying:

. . . the representative religious universe (mythology) and the practical (cult)

derived from the legible texts, are evident in Ugarit, and to a lesser extent in other
centres of Syria in the second millennium BCE, as both complementary and
consistent, proof of their cultic uniformity. Rich and varied in its forms, it allows us
to see the Canaanite religious universe beneath the Judaeo-Christian reaction
against it, which in terms of historical evolution makes clear the paganism
underlying our own Western culture.72

Eight Semantic Fields73

1. offering, sacrifice -- db, kbd, nkt, np, nrr, na, ntk, ql, qrb, lm, t (?), ty, ytn

2. procession74 -- ly, rb, dn (?), hlk, lq, y, yrd

3. enthronement rbd, t, ytb

68
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 281.
69
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 276, citing H. W. Robinson, The Hebrew Conception of
Corporate Personality, Werden und Wesen des Alten Testaments (Berlin, 1936), 49-61.
70
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 279.
71
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 279.
72
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 338.
73
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 17.
74
Including the carrying of images and entry; del Olmo Lete cites S. O. Steingrimsson, Tor der
Gerechtigkeit. Eine literature-wissenschaftliche Untersuchung der sog. Einzugsliturgie im A.T. (St. Ottilien,
1984), on the procession ritual of the temple of Jerusalem. He also compares the entry of royal statues
into the sanctuary of Tishpak at Eshnunna as an eponymous commemoration.
 13

4. vesting -- azr, lb, nr, np, ytn

5. banquet -- db, rk, r, kly, lm, nl (?), ty

6. invocation, recitation -- dn (?), n yd, pt yd (?), qr, , r

7. divination, oracle, visit phy (?), rgm, r, ttb rgm

8. atonement brr, t, my, npy, r, ny yp

UGARITIC ROYAL DIVINIZATION, ASCENSION, AND THEOGAMY

Del Olmo Lete says that strongly Hurrian KTU 1.111 belongs to the corpus of mlk-mythology, . .
,75 i.e., ritual and myth are united to explain that the kings divinization was celebrated for
three days and three nights (the end of the lunar month) by means of burnt sacrifices and
communion sacrifices,76 but also with a sacred marriage and ascension.3

He also observes that the heading and ending of the text (il przmlk il mlk) form a thematic
inclusio4 -- expressing the deification after death (rb) of the king and his ascent to heaven, . .
.5 The final line a kind of colophon.6
1-2 heading: il prz- . . . yrb mlk (Ilu Prz Feast . . . the king enters/dies)
3 atnd Father-God (= Ugaritic ilib)
4 Ilu, Teub, Kumarbi
5 Kuu , Prz
6 Nikkalu
7 Yaru
8 lmm-communion sacrifice, etc., to atnd Father-God
9 Ilu, Teub, Kumarbi
10 Kuu, Eya, [Atabi (= Ugaritic as-ta-ru)]
11 Ardn
12 imegi [tmg]
13-15 next day, offerings
16 ending: il mlk (Ilu Milku)

17-18 offerings to Attaru

19-22 dowry from him, and for Ib

75
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014),168.
76
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 161.
3
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 166,168.
4
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 165.
5
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 167.
6
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 165.
 14

21-22 bhmt beasts? [Behemoth]

22-23 lm redemption/payment

Del Olmo Lete says that KTU 1.161 is a spr a ritual record which chronicles the description of the
ceremony, and which is probably the libretto of the great funeral celebration of the descent of
the kings of Ugarit to the Underworld or simply the anniversary of their death. . . . it is a mix of
ritual and narrative, demonstrating the interaction between rite and myth, and is structured
concentrically like some other narrative rituals, e.g., G. del Olmo Lete, MLC Mitos y leyendas
de Canan segn la tradicin de Ugarit (Madrid, 1981), 436; M. Pope in M. de J. Ellis, ed., Essays
on the Ancient Near East -- Festschrift Finkelstein (Hamden, CT, 1977), 177; C. LHeureux, RCG
Rank Among the Canaanite Gods (Missoula, MT, 1979), 187; D. Pardee in J. de Moor & W.
Watson, eds., Verse in Ancient Near Eastern Prose, AOAT 42 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Kevelaer, 1993),
208-210.7 It exemplifies the cult of dead kings at Ugarit.8

2-12 Invitation (seven invocations of dead kings)

13-19 Prayer of lament to apu

20-26 Response as command (apu replies)

27-30 Proclaim the sacrificial rubric (seven offerings)

31-34 Final Greeting (seven)

There are seven rpum kings, seven sacrifices, seven greetings,9 and seven Baals (below).

Ancestor Worship in Egypt

Both royal and private (i.e., non-royal) ancestor worship formed a major part in
the religious life of the inhabitants of the ancient Egyptian settlement of Deir el-
Medina, and images of royal ancestors figured prominently on their private
monuments. Yasmin El Shazly focuses on the post-mortem deification of royal
figuresthe means by which worship was enacted, what it meant for the
participants involved, and the relationship between these deities and the living.
It also discusses the position of deified royal ancestors within the ancient Egyptian
divine hierarchy, as well as the effect that social status had on the degree of access
that an individual could have to his/her gods. The evidence used is mainly
restricted to material dating from the New Kingdom (18th20th Dynasties),
7
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W. Watson
(Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 156 and n66.
8
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 160.
9
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 156 n67; cf. seven days of banqueting in KTU 1.22 I 22-25.
 15

ranging from scenes in tombs at Deir el-Medina to personal stelae, offering-tables,

door-jambs, and non-literary sources written on papyri and ostraca from the
village. Her work also contains a detailed catalogue of those monuments from Deir
el-Medina on which evidence for royal ancestor worship can be detected.77

CHIASTIC EVIL EYE INCANTATION FROM UGARIT

KTU 1.96, a magical incantation against the Evil Eye:10
1
nn.hlkt.wnwt The restless eye which also transforms [= Akk nu muttalliktu]
2
tp.ah.knm. the beauty of its brother, so comely,
ah.3kysmsm. of its brother, so handsome,

tspi.irh 4l.bl rb. consumes its flesh without a knife,

tt.dmh 5lbl.ks. drinks its blood without a cup.

A tpnn.n 6bty. Distort does the eye of the sorcerer,

B n.btt.tpnn the eye of the sorceress does distort
7
C n mr. the eye of the tax-collector,
D n pr the eye of the potter,
8
E n.tr. the eye of the gate-keeper.
E n tr 9ltr.ttb May the eye of the gatekeeper to the
gatekeeper revert;
D n.pr 10lpr.ttb. may the eye of the potter to the potter revert;
C n mr 11mr.ttb. may the eye of the tax-collector to the tax-collector
revert;
A n.bty 12lbty.ttb. may the eye of the sorcerer to the sorcerer revert;
B n[.btt] 13lbtt.[t][tb] may the eye [of the sorceress] to the sorceress re[vert].

14
[mnt n.hlkt] [Incantation against the evil-eye / sorcerer]?

I have taken the liberty of presenting this chiasm in my own way (RFS), but del Olmo Lete calls
attention to the chiastic sequence in which the elements-victims are arranged, notes that A.
Lichtenstein first described the reversion here in the fashion of hysteron proteron, recalling
the sequential arrangement in which the items are likewise returned in the Descent of Ishtar,11
and finally del Olmo Lete comments that the repetition emphasizes the relationship between

77
Yasmin El Shazly, Royal Ancestor Worship in Deir El-Medina during the New Kingdom (Abercromby Press,
2015).
10
Translation, commentary, and photos of the tablet in G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to
the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W. Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 326-331.
11
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 331 n179, citing Lichtenstein, Episodic Structure in the
Ugaritic Keret Legend, doctoral dissertation (Columbia Univ., 1979), 238-239; del Olmo Lete says that the
final phrase is a palindrome (citing Ford, UF, 30 [1998]:252 n171), perhaps referring to the A A .
 16

both parts and highlights the assonantal / alliterative value of the formula, noted above, as a sort
of verbal magic.12

John W. Welch adds that it might have some relevance to the talionic formula eye for eye.
There's certainly poetic justice in having the evil eye bounce back at those who cast the evil eye
on others. (personal communication)

OGDOAD OF UGARITIC SACRIFICES

KTU 1.41 & 1.87 (virtually identical texts), lines 29 33,

Del Olmo Lete finds a very balanced set of components (2 / 1+1 1+1 / 2),13 in the second
series of sacrifices:14

29 two ewes for Ilahu

30 one cow for Ilahuma15

one cow for Ilahuma

31 one ewe for Thakamuna & unama

32 one ewe for Ilatu

32-33 two ewes at the spring16 as a Holocaust and Peace offering

---------------------------------------------------

That second series is contained inside a literary inclusion,17

12
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 331.
13
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 94.
14
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 87.
15
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 82,85,87,180, characterizes ilhm in Ugaritic texts as "the
Ilhma, divine beings," and relates them to Hebrew lhm; while Tess Dawson says that "the Ugaritic
word ilahuma is related to one of the names of the Hebrew deity, Elohim, which means gods.
However, she sees the ilahuma or Divine Assembly as the sons and daughters of Athiratu and Ilu, in her
The Horned Altar: Rediscovering & Rekindling Canaanite Magic (MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2013), 48,
Athiratu = Asherah, who is elsewhere the consort of YHWH.
16
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 94 n31 (b-nbk): The existence of a well / source is normal in an
ancient Near Eastern temple; John M. Lundquist, The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near
East, in The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives, ed. Truman G. Madsen
(Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1984), 5376; John H. Walton, Ancient Near
Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual Word of the Hebrew Bible (Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2006), 123-124; cf. the Zamzam well at Mecca, the central temple of Islam.
17
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 95.
 17

23-24 on the steps of the altar of the temple of Ilatu (wife of Ilahu)

23-29 first series of offerings

29-33 second series of offerings (2 / 1+1 1+1 / 2)

33-36 third series of offerings

36-38 the temple of the Lady of Exalted Mansions [upper altar]

And all this (six sections of annual ritual calendar, apart from the two separate appendices) is
contained within a still more distant literary inclusion, beginning and ending with the Autumn
New Year; lines 1-2 48-49,18

1-2 Introduction: 1st month ri yn New Wine (on the day of the new moon)

3,6-7 purification on days 13 & 14

7-8 proclamation of the (feast) day

47-48 purification ritual ends on 7th day

48-49 End: return to ceremony of the 1st month (on the day of the new moon)

Del Olmo Lete concludes that We thus have an exact temporal inclusio marking off the text as a
complete unit.19 However, this also indicates, through inclusions within inclusions, that the
standard ritual sequence itself (in KTU 1.41 & 1.87) is chiastic/concentric.

Del Olmo Lete elsewhere finds additional evidence for the ogdoad of sacrifices, e.g., in the Royal
Procession Ritual in KTU 1.43:8, which presents offerings to seven star-gods (ilm kbkbm) plus
Ktharu = eight.

TWO ISOMORPHIC SEMIOTIC SYSTEMS IN UGARITIC

KTU 1.115
A repeated series arranged in a chiastic-concentric way, on a clay tablet, with the center of the
ritual (lines 9-10) enclosed by two ruled lines,20

18
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 96-97; 96, so closing the text as a redactional unit with a final
inclusion.
19
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 89.
20
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 219-220 and n35 (on the symmetry of lines 6, 9, 11).
 18

1 When the king sacrifices

to Uara(yu), the Snake
and to Bbt, the god of the palace
one ram to the Snake
5 and one dove to the Sprout
and one ram () as an (offering of) desacralizing the hands
in the sanctuary of the god of the palace
and the women can eat wtlm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 another ram to the god of the palace as a communion sacrifice lmm
10 of which all shall eat ylm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and to Bbt one qym-ram ()
one ram to Uara(yu) the Snake
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and one dove to the Sprout
in a single day.

Note the single pair of tutelary palace deities, ur and bbt to whom the ritual is dedicated, as
well as the syntax of the sacrificial patterns, X + l + DN; X + l + DN + type; l + DN + X, with the two
quoted descriptive / prescriptive verbs: ydb, t/ylm.21

CHIASTIC GOD LIST IN UGARITIC

KTU 1.47, and 1.148, thirty-three epithets arranged concentrically; ABCCBA.22
il = 1+2
bl = 1+6
chthonian astral deities = 1+6
goddesses = 1+6
bl = 1+2
il = 1+2

Title il pn
A ilib, il, dgn
B bl pn, blm, blm, blm, blm, blm, blm
C ar wnm, ktrt, yr, pn, ktr, pdry
C [ttr]. rm wthmt, atrt, nt, p, ary, ury/ttrt
B il tdr bl, rp, ddm
A pr ilm, ym, (utt), knr, mlkm, lm

21
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 219.
22
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 59; cf. RS 20.024, and KTU 1.118 for most of same list (55).
 19

Title Ilu apnu

A God the Father, Ilu, Dagnu [Ilu = Dagnu]
B Balu apnu, blm, blm, blm, blm, blm, blm
C Aru & unama, Kthartu, Yariu, apnu, Ktharu, Pidrayu
C [Athtaru], Mountains & Oceans, Athiratu, Anatu, apu, Arayu, Uarayu / Athtartu
B Assembly of Ba lu, Rapu, Dadmiu
A Assembly of the Gods, Yammu, (utt), Kinru, Mlikma, alimu

Del Olmo Lete comments that this theology of the divine Mountain, clearly Mesopotamian in
origin, will reappear in the biblical theology of Mount Zion.23 Cf. El-adday.

Sumero-Akkadian equivalents of this chiastic canonical list are found in RS 20.024 (cf. KTU 1.118),
with RS 92.2004,

A DINGIR a-bi, DINGIRlum, dda-gan

d
B IM be-el urn a-zi, dIM II, dIM III, dIM IV, dIM V, dIM VI, dIM VII
d
C IDIM IDIM, da-s-ra-tu4, dEN-ZU, dUR.AG a-zi, d-a, d-bat
d
C a-ta-bi, dUR.AG.ME u Amu-, da-ra-tu4, da-na-tu4, dUTU, dal-la-tu4,di-a-ra, dEDARi-tar
d
B DINGIR.ME til-la-ad dIM, dGR.UNU.GAL, dd-ad-mi-i
A dpu-ur DINGIR.ME, dA.AB.BA, dDUGBUR.ZI.NG.NA, d.giki-na-r, dma-lik-ME, dsa-li-mu

The arrangement of the canonical god-list at Ugarit is indeed somewhat concentric, but not
systematically, and not with satisfying symmetry. On the other hand, according to del Olmo Lete,
it may have been very symmetrically chiastic at one time, before various accretions took place.24

Sumero-Akkadian list:

A DINGIR a-bi, DINGIRlum, dda-gan

B Hadad, Lord of Mount azi, Hadad II, Hadad III, Hadad IV, Hadad V, Hadad VI, Hadad VII
d
C IDIM IDIM, Sasurtum, Sin, Mount azi, Ea, ebat

C Atabi, dUR.AG.ME u Amu-, da-ra-tu4, Anatu, apu, dal-la-tu4,di-a-ra, Itar

d
B DINGIR.ME til-la-ad dIM, dGR.UNU.GAL, dd-ad-mi-i

A dpu-ur DINGIR.ME, dA.AB.BA, dDUGBUR.ZI.NG.NA, d.giki-na-r, dma-lik-ME, dsa-li-mu

CHIASTIC NAME-LIST IN UGARITIC

KTU 1.102:15-28, a series of names, Amorite in formation, applied to each king of Ugarit in
parallel with the historical name as a second name: . . . They are the names found forming a sort

23
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 58, citing R. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the
Old Testament (Cambridge, Mass, 1972).
24
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 59, possibly contains later additions.
 20

of sub-pantheon together with another list of dynastic gods . . . .25 Del Olmo Lete suggests that
this may be a historical sequence of fourteen dead and deified kings of Ugarit, with Niqmaddu
II/yrgbbl as historical anchor (1370-1340/1335 B.C.).26

Del Olmo Lete finds that this text has an artificial concentric structure in which the list exhibits
an internal structure based principally on the distribution of the divine names, as follows:

A 15 y<r>gbhd
B yrgbbl
C ydbil
yaril
yrmil
D 20 mtr
E ydbil
E yrgblim
D mtr
C yaril
25 ydbil
yrmil
B zbl
A ydbhd

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

25
G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., trans. W.
Watson (Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 138; the text set out on 191-192.
26
del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion, 2nd ed., 138-140, citing KTU 1.6 VI 56-58, in which Niqmaddu II has a
five-element royal titulary, as for the kings of Egypt.
 21

Bibliography

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