Canaanite Myths and Legends (Academic Paperback)

189 Pages·1978·9.28 MB·English

by  John C. L. Gibson

CANAANITE MYTHS
AND LEGENDS
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CANAANITE MYTHS
AND LEGENDS
J. C. L. GIBSON
Reader in Hebrew and Semitic Languages
New College, Edinburgh
Originally edited by G. R. Driver, F.B.A., and published in the
series Old Testament Studies under the auspices of the
Society for Old Testament Study
T & T CLARK INTERNATIONAL
A Continuum imprint
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Published by T&T Clark International
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Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd 1977
First published 1956
Second edition published 1978
This edition published 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0567080897 (paperback)
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
THIS edition of Canaanite myths and legends from Ugarit (now Ras-as-
Samrah) on the Syrian coast is based on lectures delivered over the last ten
years and is now published in the hope of making these interesting but
difficult texts accessible in convenient form to students of the Old Testament
and the Semitic languages, of mythology and religion.
No one can occupy himself with these texts without acknowledging his
debt to the distinguished pioneers without whom his work could not have
even been begun: these are Dr. C. F. A. Schaeffer, who was in charge of
the excavations which so successfully recovered the tablets containing them
from the soil in which they had lain hidden for some 3500 years; Mons.
C. Virolleaud, whose admirably prompt and accurate copies made them
available for study, and Prof. E. Dhorme and Prof. H. Bauer, who shared
with him the honour of finding the key to the decipherment of the new dialect
or language in which these texts were written. That much of their early work
has been left behind and that other scholars, notably Prof. H. L. Ginsberg, Dr.
T. H. Caster and Dr. C. H. Gordon, to whom all students of these texts are
also greatly indebted, have taken over the task of interpretation, does not detract
from the honour of the pioneers. Wherever possible the debt owed to all these
and other workers in this field is indicated in the notes and in the glossary.
Much labour of great value has already been expended on these texts; but
much work still remains to be done on them, and I hope that the present
edition may stimulate others to take up the study of them.
The bibliography is not intended to be exhaustive; in fact, it contains
the titles almost exclusively of books and articles which have been of any
use in the preparation of the present work. The glossary will be found to
contain a certain number of alternative words, readings and interpretations;
these are added because finality has not yet been reached on innumerable
points of interpretation and the decision in these cases may still be left to
the reader. In conclusion, my thanks are due to the Old Testament Society
and the Trustees of the Pusey and Ellerton Fund at Oxford for generous
contributions towards the cost of publication. I wish also to acknowledge my
debt to the compositors, who have set up this complicated piece of printing,
and the readers, who seem to have checked both printing and references,
with a care which is characteristic of all work done by the University Press.
Magdalen College, Oxford G. R. DRIVER
31 March, 1955
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
SIR GODFREY DRIVER intended to produce a second edition of Canaanite
Myths and Legends after retiring from his Chair at Oxford, but the pressure
of his commitments with the New English Bible and as time passed his own
failing health prevented him from carrying the project beyond a preliminary
stage. He asked me some years ago to undertake the task for him, generously
conveying to me his annotated copy of the first edition along with several
folders of other notes which he had gathered, including contributions
received from a number of correspondents. We planned the broad outlines
of the revision together and agreed upon most of the changes in format that
are incorporated in it, notably (i) the adoption of Mile. Herdner's system of
enumerating the tables, (2) the inclusion in the main body of the work of only
the longer and better preserved texts from the first edition, with the smaller
and more fragmentary texts being relegated to an Appendix, (3) the inclusion
in this Appendix of some of the more important texts discovered or published
since the appearance of the first edition, (4) the setting out of the main tablets
as far as possible in poetic parallelism, (5) the printing in full of the titles in
the Bibliography, and (6) the shortening of the entries in the Glossary and
their rearrangement in a more conventional sequence. It was left to me, how-
ever, to work out the details, using Sir Godfrey's notes and correspondence as a
basis but giving due weight to new studies of the subject which appeared too
late to be considered by him. Sir Godfrey consented to read and criticize
portions of the revision as I completed them and in the event saw before his
death in 1975 initial drafts of around two-thirds of it. Needless to say, I
benefited immensely from the many shrewd and searching comments he made
upon these; but I alone am answerable for the revision as it is now presented
to the public, and its defects should therefore be laid at my door and not his.
I hope that it will be judged to repay the confidence he showed in me.
On two matters of some importance Sir Godfrey and I failed to reach
accord. I could not share his firm opinions on certain features of Ugaritic
grammar and had to ask that the section entitled 'Observations on Philology
and Grammar' be omitted from this edition; the most I felt I could attempt
(apart from a short Note on Phonology) was to give guidance in the footnotes
on possible alternative solutions (including of course Sir Godfrey's) to some
of the more troublesome problems. He on the other hand disapproved of the
attention I pay in the Introduction and footnotes to listing and sometimes
commenting more fully on parallels between the Ugaritic texts and the
Hebrew Bible. His scepticism about the propriety of such comparisons is well
known and has often been shown to be justified; but since a large number,
viii CANAANITE MYTHS AND LEGENDS
perhaps the majority, of those who work in the Ugaritic field are also students
of the Bible, comparisons will inevitably continue to be made, and it seemed
to me wiser to recognize this and, as far as space permitted, to close with the
issues involved rather than to play safe by ignoring them. Sir Godfrey and I
had several arguments over these two matters and I wish to place on record
my deep appreciation of his magnanimity in insisting that I as editor should
have the final decision.
One small improvement I would have liked to introduce was in Ugaritic
transliterations to substitute for the symbols z and ? of the first edition
appropriate adaptations of the phonetically more accurate symbols d and J, but
for typographical reasons this was not possible.
On several occasions I consulted other scholars about problems connected
with the revision and I wish to thank those who gave me of their valuable
time, particularly Professors John Gray of Aberdeen and Jidouard Lipiriski
of Louvain, and Dr. Wilfred Watson, formerly Research Fellow of Edinburgh
University. I am grateful to Mr. William Johnstone of Aberdeen University
for letting me see copies of two articles by him which are not yet in print. Of
Sir Godfrey's many correspondents I should like especially to mention
Professor John Emerton of Cambridge. Finally I am indebted to the senior
class in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies at Edinburgh during the
academic session 1975-1976, who were subjected to large sections of this
edition in draft form and from whose reactions I drew many helpful insights;
and to Mr. Kenneth Aitken, a member of that class, who also assisted me
with the checking of references.
New College, Edinburgh J.C.L.GIBSON
September, 1976
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION v
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION vii
CONCORDANCE OF TABLETS xi
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY xiii
INTRODUCTION
A. THE DISCOVERY OF THE TABLETS 1
B. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE TEXTS 2
1. BAAL AND YAM 2
2. THE PALACE OF BAAL 8
3. BAAL AND MOT 14
4. KERET 19
5. AQHAT 23
6. SHACHAR AND SHALIM AND THE GRACIOUS GODS 28
7. NlKKAL AND THE KOTHARAT 30
8. THE TEXTS IN THE APPENDIX (BRIEF NOTES) 31
TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION
OF THE TEXTS
1. BAAL AND YAM 37
2. THE PALACE OF BAAL 46
3. BAAL AND MOT 68
4. KERET 82
5. AQHAT 103
6. SHACHAR AND SHALIM AND THE GRACIOUS GODS 123
7. NlKKAL AND THE KOTHARAT 128
8. APPENDIX: FRAGMENTARY AND RECENTLY PUBLISHED TEXTS
(TRANSLITERATION ONLY) 130
NOTE ON THE PHONOLOGY OF UGARITIC 140
GLOSSARY 141
BIBLICAL AND OTHER REFERENCES 161
ADDENDA 165
TABLE OF UGARITIC SIGNS 168