Religious Texts from Ugarit: 2nd Edition

508 Pages·2002·17.505 MB·English

by  Nicolas Wyatt

3
RELIGIOUS TEXTS
FROM UGARIT

RELIGIOUS TEXTS
FROM UGARIT
2nd Edition
N. Wyatt
1st edition published 1998
2nd revised edition
Copyright ® 2002 Sheffield Academic Pré»
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ISBN 0-8264-6048-8
CONTENTS
Preface 9
Introduction 11
Abbreviations 25
Part I
KTU 1.1-1.6
THE BAAL CYCLE OF MYTHS 34
KTU 1.1-1.2 Baal and Yam 39
KTU 1.3-1.4 Baal's Palace 70
KTU 1.5-1.6 Baal and Mot 115
Part II
KTU 1.7-1.13
FRAGMENTS AND SHORTER MYTHS CONCERNING BAAL
ANDANAT 148
KTU 1.7 Excerpts from KTU 1.3 concerning Anat 148
KTU 1.8 Excerpts from KTU 1.4 152
KTU 1.9 A Fragment of a Myth concerning Baal
or his Son 153
KTU 1.10 Baal, the Heifer, and Anat 155
KTU 1.11 A Fragment concerning Baal and Anat 161
KTU 1.12 The Devourers 162
KTU 1.13 A Hymn to Anat 169
Part III
KTU 1.14-1.16
THE STORY OF KING KERET 176
6 Religious Texts from Ugarit
Part IV
KTU 1.17-1.19
THE STORY OF AQHAT 246
Part V
SELECTIONS FROM TEXTS KTU 1.20-1.169
MISCELLANEOUS TEXTS 314
KTU 1.20-1.22 The RPUM Texts 314
KTU 1.23 The Gracious Gods: A Sacred Marriage
Liturgy 324
KTU 1.24 The Wedding of Nikkal and Ib 336
KTU 1.40 A Liturgy for a Rite of Atonement
for the People of Ugarit 342
KTU 1.41 Instructions for the Ritual Calendar
of the Month of Vintage 348
KTU 1.87 Duplicate of KTU 1.41: The Variant Ending 356
KTU 1.43 Sacrifices and Votive Gifts in Palace Rituals 357
KTU 1.47, 1.118
and RS 20.24 Pantheon Lists 360
KTU 1.65 A Prayer for the Security of Ugarit 363
KTU 1.78 An Astronomical Text 366
KTU 1.83 A Goddess Confronts a Dragon 368
KTU 1.92 The Myth of Athtart the Huntress 370
KTU 1.96 A Spell against the Evil Eye 375
KTU 1.100 The Myth of Shapsh and the Mare:
A Spell against Snakebite 378
KTU 1.101 A Hymn to Baal Enthroned 388
KTU 1.107 A Cautionary Tale: Sirugazuz Learns
the Risks of Snake-Charming 391
KTU 1.108 An Intercessory Prayer to Rapiu and other
Deities 395
KTU 1.1 I3 A Royal Liturgy, and the Ugaritic King-List 399
KTU 1.114 The Myth of El's Banquet:
A Medical Text 404
KTU 1.117 The Plea for a House for Baal 414
Contellts 7
KTU 1.119 The Ritual Calendar for the Month of Ibaalat
and Another Month and a Prayer for
Ugarit Under Siege 416
KTU 1.124 A Medical Text based on an Oracle Tradition 423
KTU 1.133 A Mythological Fragment concerning Mot 426
KTU 1.148 A Compendium of Ritual Lists 427
KTU 1.161 A Royal Funeral Liturgy 430
KTU 1.169 An Incantation for the Exorcism of a
Possessed Adolescent 442
Bibliography 450
Index of References 486
Index of Authors 496

PREFACE
The present work offers translations with commentary of fifty tablets
I
from Ugarit. I had hoped that before it was complete I would have
access to the new texts currently (1997) in press, in particular wishing
to include the new I1imilku text (RS 1992.2016) and other recent dis
coveries. Unfortunately, though Pierre Bordreuil kindly arranged for
me to see the proofs of the publication they have not arrived in time to
be included here. I hope that I shall be able to offer a second volume at
a later date.
A work of this kind is essentially a cooperative venture. Any transla
tor of ancient texts apart from the first will rely heavily on his col
leagues, and build on their earlier efforts. I hope that my voluminous
footnotes leave no conscious debts unacknowledged. My brief from
Sheffield Academic Press was to justify my translations where they dif
fer from others, and to present a short commentary, in the notes accom
panying the text. At times it seems as though these have run away with
the enterprise, when they exceed the amount of translated text on the
page. The need for brevity has however controlled the enterprise from
the beginning. Thus the reader will not find exhaustive treatment of
every issue, but representative examples of the main points of dis
agreement among scholars, both philological and text-critical on the
one hand, and hermeneutical and exegetical on the other. I hope that on
the scale from dull pedantry to readability, both in translation and anno
tation, I have approximated to the latter end of the range, and that this
has not been too much at the expense of accuracy and faithfulness to
the original.
Ugaritologists will lament the appearance of yet a further edition of
the Ugaritic texts, in parallel with the continued comparative neglect of
the Akkadian and Hurrian texts from Ras Shamra, which are equally
deserving of a wider dissemination than the specialist periodicals. My
I. KTU 1.2 iii is treated separately, and one Akkadian text (RS 20.24) is
included among the pantheon lists.